Monster Rancher Advance Adventures
by Undrave
Summary: (Based on MRA2).A boy get the Genki Syndrome and end up in the world of Monster Rancher Advance 2, Episode 11: AGIMA Official E, part 1. The D Class and the chance to fight against Darkalon rest in the balance, but the tournament won't be easy!
1. Code DKYW

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: Hello everybody, here is my new project! This story is based on Monster Rancher Advance 2, I have yet to complete the game and I will try to keep from spoiling any major events. Notice that I also take some liberties every once in a while, and I have no idea how long this story will last, I'll see where it takes me. Some faithful reader of my work might recognize my hero's name from my Digimon fic, wich you'll notice is not there anymore. 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
**By: HellRavenmon**  
_Episode 1: Code "DKYW"_  


_The crowd was cheering all around him. A wild crowd surrounding him in stone bleechers. The boy was in the middle of a colloseum looking building. A large stone circle raising high into the sky. He looked around in total surprise and then an explosion attracted his attention to the center of the building. On a raised circular platform he saw two...two monsters! He gasped as he watched a Ducken battle an Antlan. He knew these monsters, he had seen them in the games. He wasn't sure how to react and he just stood there.   
_

The Antlan charged forward, its fist a blaze. The Ducken dodged the attack and quickly retaliated with a series of wing slap, sending its opponent back. Then the Antlan rushed him and attacked with its punch rush, landing a good series of hit. The crowd was cheering even more wildly, but the boy stood there silently, amazed by what he was seeing... and unaware for who he should be rooting. Then he noticed someone, standing on the opposite side of the circular platform. It was a shaddowed form but it was obviously a boy about his age looking back to him. Then the Antlan leaped into the air raising its arm to the sky as the Ducken's eyes started to glow. He knew what was going to happen... The two monsters unleashed their attacks, meteors falling from the sky as per the Antlan's command and two powerful Eye Beam shooting out of the Ducken's eyes.  


The two attacks collided and created a large explosion. The light blinded the boy who took a step back. The light engulfed everything and when he reopened his eyes all he could see was a black horizontal rectangle stone slab hovering above the white ground in front of him. On the stone like surface were engraved the letters "DKYW".   


"What...what is that?" He asked.  


But he never got his answer. The stone exploded, showering him with shards and light once again. And then...he woke up. 

Metin Uchara, 14, woke up with a start. The images of his dream rushed through his head as he tried to gather his bearing. He ran his hand through his dirty blond hair before rubbing his eyes. At first he wasn't sure what that weird monster dream meant, until he glanced at the calandar standing by his alarm clock radio. Today was D-Day, or more precisely, SP-day. The day the GBA SP was coming out! The all new Game Boy Advance with light up screen. Keoki had saved money for a long time to not only get the newest version of his favorite console but the sequel to one of his favorite game as well: Monster Rancher Advance 2! The game had been out for a while, but Keoki managed to resist buying it until this very day, as some kind of celebration for his soon aquisition of a GBASP.   


The boy quickly leaped up from bed, quickly changing from his green pyjamas in a flash. He put on his baggy grey pants, his green t-shirt and his brown vest. He grabbed hold of his Indiana Jones style explorer hat and took a few minutes looking at himself in his mirror to adjust it. He smiled proudly at his look, behind him on the opposite wall he could see the poster he had of Monster Rancher Advance 2, actually it was just a full page ad he took from a magazine and put on his wall. It had a friendly looking Suezo casting a menacing shadow. The ad was very mysterious. 

"METIN! HURRY UP! YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE AGAIN!" Shouted his mom from downstair.  


"COMING MOM!" He replied.  


The boy quickly grabbed his schoolbag and pushed his unfinished homework from his desk down into his bag, like he was taking out the trash. He had a hard time stuffing it all down but managed to do finally zip. He grabbed his icey clear blue GBA with his Monster Rancher Advance loaded into it. Right now he was training a Dragon of second generation, a Niezheg to be precise, and he hoped to combined it with his second generation Shuri. Training a Dragon prooved to be hard, but now he was starting to apreciate the big lug. Not as much as a Zan tough, his favorite kind of Monster. He quickly pocketed the device and ran out his door. He quickly and loudly went down the stair, barely said 'good morning' to his mom, grabbed a toast as it popped out of the toaster and dissapeared through the door.  


-----------  


Metin rushed out of the school at the end of the day. He had spent his day thinking about Monster Rancher and his Game Boy Advance SP and he got a detention for his lack of attention in class, and for bringing his GBA to school... but detention were always done on Friday so he was free for the moment and made his way to the store in a heartbeat, slaloming betweem the pedestrian on the busy streets on his way. It took him a good 15 seconds to grab hold of a Monster Rancher Advance 2 copy and after 5 minutes he had his console. He was among the first to reserve one when it was announced. Everything was in order and he left the store. The trip home felt way too long for the boy. Running through the street among complaining bystanders, he even made a buisnessman trip by accident. He finally reached his house and barely had took the time to greet his mom that he was in his room, unpacking his new Game Boy and game, taking great care as not to damage the boxes. He admired his new platinium console for a second, it looked so much diferent from the original Game Boy Advance. It was very small, the screen and the controls were on two diferent parts that could be folded together like an old Game And Watch game. It had a light that made the screen clearer than the original, and the cartridge slot was at the bottom. He quickly loaded his new game. On the box there was two monsters he had never seen, a lion looking critter and some strange devil bunny with claws at the end of it's ears and holding a trident.  


"Cool...looks like it still takes place on Age Island." Commented Metin as he started the game, not even taking the time to read the instruction manual.  


Quickly he started and put in his name as character. "Woh... Holly's my assistant! How cool!" He added.  


Now was time to input his first code to generate a monster. With only four letters Metin wasn't sure of what to put. He pondered for long, staring at his screen blankly, moving his cursor on the letters. At some point he stopped on the 'D' and remembered his dream...it was a sign! IT would probably get him a cool Special monster! He quickly entered the four letters he had seen in his dream "DKYW... that should do it... and 'end' "  


Metin watched the round stone spin in the shrine, the letters flying off, turning into glowing symbols. They started spinning around the stone, a light started to shine from within the circle, it was something he had seen a lot of time... but then something happened... something...VERY weird...  


The light...it was getting brighter and brighter! Way too much in fact, Metin was being blinded by the bright light...how could that be coming from a simple GBA screen? Then...the light something amazing happened... the light... ESCAPED the screen! It floated up in the air, still shining brightly, Metin could barely see but he saw it expend and soon his whole room dissapeared in pure white light and he felt himself falling! 

Metin screamed in fear as he felt like he was falling through a tunnel of light, bouncing off the side of the strange passage. He clutched his GBA SP, hoping it wouldn't be damaged through this ordeal. Everything was spinning and Metin was feeling very dizzy and finally he hit the ground...hard.   


For a while the boy just layed there on the stone floor, his eyes closed. He was still feeling dizzy after the fall, he felt his hat fall down on his face, but he didn't care.  


"That doesn't look like a monster..." Suddenly said a man's voice.  


"He has weird clothings..." Commented a soft girl's voice.  


He heard a soft flutter, like wing flapping or something. Someone took hold of his hat and move it away from his face.  


"Are you okay?" Asked a higher pitched female voice that had a mischiefous edge to it.  


Metin slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred at first, but things were getting clearer and clearer. It looked like a girl with pale pink skin and...green hair? She had two things in her hair and she was looking down on him, as things got clearer Metin noticed she looked pretty but then he realised that those things that were in her hair were actually...horns! Sticking out of her head! 

"You alright?" Asked the Lip Pink Pixie.  


**To Be Continued...**


	2. The New Breeder

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 2: The New Breeder _  


"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Screamed Metin, scurrying away until he hit a stone wall.  


"A LIP...LIP...LIP PINK?!?" He asked completly surprised, overwhelmed by thousands of diferent emotions.  


She looked a lot like the Pixie he had seen on the show, only she looked smaller and younger and whitout claws at the tip of her feet. Her skin was totally mocchi pink and her fur and hair green. 

She smiled "Hi! My name's Mei!" The pixie breed Monster said, giggling as she hovered a few inches above the ground by softly flaping her wings.  


"Calm down... we're not gonna harm you." Pleaded the other female voice Metin had heard when he was laying on the ground.  


He looked beyong the flying monster and saw two human in strange costume standing by a large stone pedestal. He gasped when he recognized the source of the voice... he had seen her in games and in the TV show... it was Holly! And next to her was standing a middle-age man with brown hair, he knew him from the first GBA game and recognized his face, it was Mr. Bolzoi of AGIMA. All around him was random stuff from his room: pens, school books, comic books, his trashcan with useless papers scattered all around. The room he was in had a very high roof and was really dark. He was on a round platform with three slab of stone acting as short walls behind him, and at the opposite side of the room he could see two large brown door with a smaller one next to them, opened, through wich light was shining.  


"This can't be... I'm...I'm on Age Island?!? Somebody pinch me!" Realised the boy, breathing rapidly.  


Mei, the Lip Pink flied over him and pinched his cheek...hard.  


Metin leaped to his feet "OW!!! What's the big idea?" He asked angrily.  


"Well you asked to be pinched." Answered the female monster, hovering like that she could look at the boy right in the eyes.  


"I didn't meant that hard...wait...if I felt that then...it's...it's not a dream... I'm really on Age Island..." Metin stopped for a moment to think, he remembered the Animated show and realized that he was just like Genki...  


"Yes you're Age Island... my name's Holly, this Mr. Bolzoi and you know Mei...what's your name?" Asked Holly, stepping toward the younger boy.  


"My name's Metin... Metin Uchara! Holly, tell me, what's going on?" Asked Metin, calming down after his initial shock.  


"We found a small tablets with the letters 'DKYW' on it and we tried to regenerated a monster but then you came out of the light... we're in AGIMA's shrine." Explained Mr. Bolzoi. "Where do you come from? I've never seen clothes like yours."  


"That's exactly the code I imput in my game! This is almost exactly what happened to Genki! Say do ytou have baddies to fight? Are you in trouble? This is great I'm in a Monster Rancher game!" Cheered Metin as he started to jump up and down.  


"Genki? Baddies? Monster Rancher game? What are you talking about? I don't know a Genki and we have no 'baddies' trouble...maybe a few strays." Inquired Holly, a bit worried for the strange boy's sanity. 

Metin rubbed his chin, he still wasn't sure how to proceed. "Hmm...guess it's not the same place... Nevermind about Genki and baddies... I know you Holly, your a famous breeder and you came here to become an Assistant to try something new... where's the breeder your supposed to help?"   


Holly took a step back "How do you know that? They haven't found a breeder for me to help yet... but I already started some breeding myself in the meantime at the Ranch they lend me, Mei is an Age monster that I got when I came here." She explained.  


"That's me!" Said the Lip Pink, flying beside Holly, handing Metin his hat.  


"Thanks... wow 

"Looks like your a breeder too...or are you an assistant?" Commented Mr. Bolzoi.  


"What? Me? I'm neither, why would you think that?" Asked Metin confused.  


"Well you have a Mon Unit and you can speak with Monsters, I assumed you were one." Answered the man.  


Metin blinked "Mon Unit?" 

Mei giggled "You don't know what's a Mon Unit and you have one?" she bent down and picked up Metin's closed GBA SP and handled him the device.  


"This isn't a Mon Unit, it's called a Game Boy Advance SP and it's a gaming console..." Said Metin, opening it up, but then he realised something was wrong.  


It didn't felt like platic anymore, the surface felt like real metal. The Nintendo and Game boy Advance names had dissapeared, same for the start, select, R and L buttons, while the 'A' and 'B' button and crosspad looked like they were made out of stone, but the most surprising changes were the dissapearance of the cartridge slot and the appearance of two leather strap at the bottom. It seamed like you could strap it to your left arm like a watch... a big watch.  


"What...what happened? It doesn't look like my Game Boy Advance anymore...where's my cartridge?" The boy started to look around and quickly found the little black plastic piece.  


"A cartridge?" Holly was getting as confused at the boy seamed and she wasn't sure how to react. "Well as for a Mon Unit, it's a device that can only be given to a person who can speak with monsters, only those who can do that can become breeders. A Mon Unit is like a Breeding liscence and it allows a breeder to comunicate directly with his or her monster as well as access precise information about that monster." She explained.  


"Wow... that's cool, you mean I'm special because I speak with monsters? Hmm...at least my cartridge is still the same."Commented Metin, picking up his game cartridge.  


"Let me take a look at that..." Asked Mr. Bolzoi moving in closer to the weird kid, examining his Mon Unit and cartridge. "Oh my...your...your... your Mon Unit is a Rare Platinium! You've got a great destiny ahead of you kid! And that Tablet is just like the one we found but yours got more markings on it that I ever saw on a tablet, the maximum is usually 8! You could become a serious breeder."  


"What's so special about a platinium Mon Unit?" Inquired the boy.  


"A Mon Unit appear as a slab of stone until it is given to a breeder...don't you know that? It is when it takes on it's final form and color that match the Breeder. A metallic color like Silver, Gold or Platinium means your special, your link to your monsters will be greater and a Special Mon Unit allow you to acess information about your opponent, something incredibly useful in battle! Look, mine is only white." Explained Holly, pulling back her shirt sleeve and showing her own Mon Unit, and it was indeed looking like a white GBA SP.  


Metin was starting to see the good side of this odd situation"You think I can become a breeder here on Age Island?" 

Mr. Bolzoi nodded."Well that is if you don't want to return to your home land... I'm not sure how you got here in the first place... maybe you know how to get back. Otherwise Holly already got a ranch ready to welcome a breeder."   


"Hmm...well... I don't know how I got here either and I don't know how to get back... hm... wait... this mean I can...become a real life monster breeder! THAT'S SO COOL!" Metin jumped up and down, surprising the two human and making the Lip Pink giggle.  


"Your funny." Commented the little monster.  


"So? how do I become a Monster Breeder huh? How do I get my first monster, will I have to take care of Holly's Lip Pink? Tell me please!!!" Asked the enthusiastic boy.  


Holly smiled at the boy's joy."Why don't we get you registered at the AGIMA headquarter while Mr. Bolzoi prepare the shrine to regenerate your tablet... maybe on the way there you can tell me where you come from."   


"Hehe, if I told you you wouldn't believe me, it'll be my little secret for now." Metin replied, winking before heading to the door . "Com'on, I want to see that AGIMA HQ! I can't wait to start up! WOOHOO! I'M GONNA BE A BREEDER!"   


With that Metin stepped out through the small door and into the sunny street. The sun his his skin and warm him up. The soft breeze that was blowing was carrying a faint salty smell, among with various food odors, telling the ocean and the marketlace were probably not that far. Around him the boy saw ocre colored stone buildinds with wooden roof, everything looked to be in a early renaissance style, near the end of the middle age but not too gothic either. The street itself was covered by large flat pale stone, and it was quite clean. There was many people in the street, mostly women with basket filled with food, but there was also three kids playing with a leather ball and two breeder talking. Metin noticed they had blue and green Mon Unit on their arm, one had an impresive Voltie (Tiger+Antlan) by his side while the other had a Suezo. They all had the same kind of rustic and rural looking clothing as Holly and Mr. Bolzoi and the boy felt out of place when two woman looked at him oddly because of his otherwordly clothing.  


"I'm gonna need some serious gold fast if I want to blend in with the population." He commented more to himself than for Holly and Mei who just came out of the building as well.  


"Yeah, your clothes are weird...but then again I think clothes are weird period." Commented the Lip Pink, giggling as usual.  


The boy smile, amused at how many time the little monster had giggled since he arrived "You're a happy monster, Holly must really take good care of you."   


"Thank you... com'on, the AGIMA HQ is just on the other side of the street." Said the girl, pointing to the building in front of them with a big 'AGIMA' sign on it.  


"Last there is a Rotten Weed!" Called Mei, darting ahead.  


"You're not outpacing me fairy girl!" Replied Metin, running ahead as well.  


The street wasn't very large and the two quickly had to stop before ramming into the wooden door of the building. It was easier for Mei who was hovering above the ground, but Metin almost lost balance. Holly shook her head as she walked up to the two and opened the door.  


"Good thing Mei is MY monster, together you would terrorize the city." She told Metin.  


"You'll see when I get MY monster! I'll be the champ! We,ll make it all the way to Master class!" Boasted the boy. 

"Someone wants to be a breeder apparantly." said a smooth adult female voice. 

It was a woman standing behind a stone counter in the entrace hall of the AGIMA Building. The room was large and simple, an effective design. It had diferent doors on the side walls and behind the woman was a large stone slab with a fossil on it... to Metin it looked like a giant bird. Maybe it was a Phoenix.   


(AN: I don't know who's in charge of the AGIMA HQ, I don't have my GBA with me at the moment so I'll say it's Francesca, who also comments the tournaments.) 

"Hello Francesca! I got a friend here who already got a Mon Unit and want to become a Breeder here in Age." Explained Holly as the three went up to the counter, Mei landing on her feet, showing she was much shorter than Metin.  


Francesca had long brown hair and was wearing a simple brown and black attire with white and red highlights, metin couldn't see it since she was behind a counter but she was wearing large pants. Most woman in Monster related buisness prefered to wear pants instead of dress. 

"Hi! My name's Metin Uchara! I guess you're gonna want to see this!" Declared the boy, showing his platinium Mon Unit to the lady.  


"Wow! A Platinium Mon Unit! It's a very special and rare color, it's the first one I see! If you would please hand it to me." Politely asked Francesca.  


Metin did so and she put it on a hole in a big slab of stone, like it was a zipdisk in a Zip Drive.Next to it was something surprising to Metin: a screen and keyboard! It looked ancient and made out of material such as stone and metal. The boy guessed those were all remnants of the ancient civilisation that created the monsters, he had even seen theories about the show on the web that tought Genki had actually travel into the future of his own world, but all these theorizing gave him a headache. For now he just watch the lady type a few command, acessing the data on his Mon Unit.  


"So your a first level Breeder... it doesn't say what is your origin...strange. Out of that everything is fine, your now officially registered as a breeder for the entire territory of the Island of Age! Congratulation and welcome." Explained Francesca, handing back the precious Mon Unit to Metin. "Your free to get your first monster!".  


"ALLRIGHT!" Cheered the boy, jumping in the air before turning to Mei. "I'll race ya there!" He said before dashing back to the door.  


"He's full of energy isn't he?" Commented Francesca as Holly shook her head.  


"I'm gonna have to show him being a Breeder isn't just fun and game." The girl complained before following her two 'friends' that had quickly passed the door.  


In a moment Holly was back to the other side of the street and into the Shrine. Mr. Bolzoi was powering up the ancient contraption, the light glowing on the strange lampost like formation on each side of the platform. Metin was quickly collected all his belonging and had put them in a big bag Mr. Bolzoi had generously given him. Everything was ready.  


"Now everyboy stand back from the platform." Ordered Mr. Bolzoi, standing behind the stone pedestal that served as control console with Metin by his side ."Regenerate!" Metin called, pressing a large button on the console that lite up immediatedly.  


The light on the lampost got brighter as the small cartridge rose from the center of the platform, shining brighter and brighter with each second, soon the light was a large ball roughly big enough for Metin to fit in. Wind was slightly blowing, showing the cartidge was actually spinning in the center of the mass of light. Soon the light started to shrink, taking a form. It was getting more and more distinct and quickly Metin got to see his very own and first Monster...  


"A KOKKUNG?!?" Gasped the boy, staring at the Ducken breed monster in front of him. "What kind of joke is that?!" He asked angrily.  


Before him was standing a Ducken, but it looked shiney, as if it was made of metal, it was mostly grey but his upper ring was red and the lower one dark grey. 

"Who you calling a joke? Punk?" Growled the little but agressive Ducken/Durahan monster with a squeaky voice that had a slight New-York accent to it...as strange as it sound. 

"You! You little rubber ducky!" Replied Metin, glaring at the monster.  


The Kokkung walked closer to his breeder and glare "I'm not rubber I'm made of metal!" 

"Can't I try another tablet?" Inquired Metin, making his monster furious.  


"What is wrong with me? You think I can't fight? Is that it? I'll show you, you little brat!" Declared the Kokkung, dashing for Metin and unleashing a series of wing slap.  


Metin tried to pull away from the ragin monster."Ow! hey! Ow! Stop it! Ah! It barely... OW! Barely hurts AH!"   


"I'm sorry Metin but this monster is your responsability now." Explained Mr. Bolzoi.  


Finally the Kokkung ran out of guts and stopped his attack, panting hard. 

"Aww man... I was expecting an Antlan or maybe even a Zan! And you tell me that in my cartrdige that cost me over 40 bucks there was only a Kokkung... guess I'll have to take care of ya." Complained Metin, defeated.  


"Who says I want YOU to take care of me huh? I could simply find a better breeder! You're just a lowly rookie!" Replied the Kokkung.  


"Oh yeah?!? I'll show you who's the rookie here!" Growled Metin, pulling back his sleeves and getting into a boxing stance.  


The two glared at each other before lounging forward, getting into a furious and ridiculous looking grapling contest, dissapearing in a cloud of dust like in old cartoon shows. Holly, Mr. Bolzoi sweatdropped while Mei giggled and cheered for both fighters.  


"This is not good." Groaned Holly, holding her forehead with her hand.  


**To Be Continued...**


	3. Getting Started

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 3: Getting Started _  


Metin and the Kokkung were fighting loudly, rolling around the shrine. Holly was getting really tired of this, they were acting like children!  


"Allright! THAT'S ENOUGH! Break it off you two!"She called, getting betweem the two after they had split apart for a few seconds.  


"That stupid rubber duck said I wasn't a good breeder!" complained the boy.  


"And that rookie said I wasn't a good monster!" Replied the Kokkung.  


"That's enough! You're both acting like babies!" Said Holly, visibly exasperated "Metin, your new here and you'll have to accept the fact that nobody will believe your a good breeder until you proove yourself in a tournament! And you Kokkung are in the same position as Metin because your a new monster!"   


"It doesn't give him any right to insult me!" Both pointed out at the same time.  


Holly shook her head "You two calm down or I order Mei to slap you into obediance!" 

Mei giggled as she cracked her knuckles "It would be fun."   


The two male tought for a moment, realising that receiving a slap attack might not be a good thing, they already had taken some damage, Metin more than the Kokkung actually. Even his fist were sore from hitting the hard body of his monster.  


"Hmm...oh geez... I guess your right Holly, I shouldn't argue with him, after all he's MY monster." Tought Metin.  


The Kokkung scowled "YOUR monster? All I need from you is some food, I'm not YOUR monster, nor anybody else's for that matter! You didn't even gave me a name!"   


"He's right, you didn't gave him a name yet." Pointed out Mr. Bolzoi.  


"Hmm... let me think here... how about Dux? Kokkunator? KrazyDuck?No?" Proposed the boy, his monster shaking his head at every name. "Okay... hmm... I got it! Kanar!"   


"Hmm...Kanar... sounds like a nice name." Agreed Holly.  


"Yeah it's good! Kanar!" Cheered Mei.  


The Kokkung, now Kanar scratched his little head with his wing. "I guess if you like it I like it too."   


Holly smiled, seeing the two had calmed down... but she knew they wouldn't stay at peace for long, they certainly didn't feel like they could get together that easily.   


She clapped her hand together. "Com'on everybody, we've bothered Mr. Bolzoi for too long. I'll show you guys our ranch!"   


"Our ranch? Allright! I got a ranch!" cheered the boy, jumping up again.  


The small group quickly bid farewell to Mr. Bolzoi and left the shrine. Kanar had his first look at the world outside the shrine and looked with the same kind of amazement as Metin. The city was surrounded by small green hills. Holly lead the two newcommers to the left, the street was stretching all the way out of town and up a hill, where it was turning into a dusty trail.  


"That street is a direct route to go to our ranch. The marketplace is on the other side, there you can also find the monster shop for all kind of monster related Item. We'll pass by the hospital on the way out of town and the studio is on the second floor of the AGIMA building." Explained Holly.  


Metin didn't know what was the purpose of the Hospital, but he nodded as if he understood it anyway. The boy also noticed that the street had man-hole cover and sewer grates. The city had a sewer system, and probably running water. This city was a strange combination of technology and lack of technology, it wasn't directly based on any Earth historic period he knew. He would like to visit every part of this town when he would get the chance.  


" I hope you got some good food at yet ranch, I'm starving!" Complained Kanar by his side.  


"I almost forgot about you." Commented Metin. "You know, I'm feeling hungry too."   


"Don't worry, I'll cook you a nice meal." Replied Holly.  


"Allright!" Both boy and monster cheered.  


It took about fifteen minutes for the little procession to reach the top of the hill. Metin looked around in amazement. In front of him was a large verdant valley, with a few ranches of various size sprawled around a round sparkling clear lake. There was a few big houses, some medium, barns of all shape and all kinds of small construction laying around large field. In the distance he could see snowy top mountains as well as lush forest on the other side. Looking back to the two Metin could see it was nestled betweem a series of similar hills and a bay. The ocean could be seen, it was large and clear. It was an incredible sight to behold.  


"WOW!" Was all the boy could say.  


"Beautiful isn't it?" Asked Holly, getting a vigorous nod as answer "Com'on, I'll show you our ranch!"   


Kanar and Metin followed Holly downhill while Mei flew above them. Soon they were at the foot of the hill in the tranquill valley and Holly stoped in front of two tall wooden post holding a panel where was painted "Hopestar Ranch" in a bright yellow color. It was the entrace gate of the ranch, to the posts was link a fence that reached all the way to the nearby lake and to the bottom of the hill. The ranch territory was about a small suburb city block large!It even had it's own little beach on the lake. Metin lost some of his enthusiasm when he saw the buildings... there was a small house with a grey field stone walls near the lake, but not too close in case of a flood, it had a door and a window on each side of it and a wooden roof, in front of it where two rock bench, perfect to enjoy the sun. What looked like the barn was barely any bigger than the house and was entirely made out of wood. There was a storm cellar next to it and all around the grass field were littered large rocks and markings used for exerciced. There was also a toolshed that probably contained training equipement.  


"Do you like the name? I tought of it!" Said Mei, landing beside Metin.  


"Yeah it's nice! The buildings look small but it's allright, your both small monsters." Replied the boy.  


"Who you callin' small?" Asked Kanar, only to find his question unanswered as his 'breeder' was lead into the house by Holly.  


The house only had two room. It had a main room with a dining table in the middle with four chair, a bookcase with only a few books in it, a large chimney on one side with all the cooking equipement a small ranch would need, next to it was an armoir probably with food in it and on the other side of the room a bunkbed. The room was lit by a few candles and there was an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling above the dining table. There was a small room that took the furthest left corner wich was closed by a curtain.  


"What's over there?" Inquired Metin, pointing to the curtain.  


"Oh... it's the bathroom." Anwered Holly. 

Metin went to check it out and was surprised at how modern it look... it had a primitive looking toilet with a wooden seat but still had a flush, a small sink and a round wood bath. But what made it more modern was the prescence of running water! When Metin exit he noticed there was a tap betweem the stove and the wall of the bathroom, underneath was a simple bucket.  


"Allright! I call the top bed!" He declared. "I officially declare the Hopestar Ranch in buisness!" He then added.  


"Allright! Let's hope we'll reach the highest levels!" Cheered Holly.  


"YEAH!!!"Shouted Mei, leaping up in the air before landing back softly.  


Kanar wasn't really sharing the excitement, he didn't felt like being trained to fight "Hey...where am I gonna sleep?"   


"In the barn." dryly answered Metin.  


"I'm not sleeping in some run down shack on hay!" Complained the monster.  


"Com'on, it'll be fun! You'll be bunking with ME!" Pleaded Mei.  


Kanar looked at the Lip Pink up and down and smile. "Allright then! Count me in...for tonight."   


"_Good, things are finally taking shape! This might turned out pefect._" Tought Holly as she watched Metin unloading his bag of belongings on the bookcase.  


The adventure is only starting and the Hopestar Ranch got a long way to go before Master Class... a LONG way to go.  


**To be continued...**  



	4. Meeting the Neigbhors

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: Yes there will be more in future chapters, there is a small battle in this chapter to give you something to chew on for now, but it's just a tiny sample of what is to come... VERY tiny ;). 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 4: Meeting the Neighbors _  


After visiting the new ranch the little group returned to the house. The sun had some down and all the lanterns and candles were lit up. The main room was bathed in a warm glow. Holly headed toward the kitchen corner.  


"Why don't you check out Kanar's stat while I cook dinner." Proposed Holly to Metin.  


"Allright!" Agreed the boy, sitting down at the table.   


Kanar sat on the other chair and Mei pulled a log to sit on it. Metin opened up his Mon Unit and the screen lit up after a few seconds. Five option appeared on the screen : "Monster", "Breeder", "Book", "Battles" and "Scan". The boy scratched his head and decided to ask for some help.  


"So...how does this work?"  


"My, you're a strange boy, you got a Mon Unit and you don't know how it works? Mei, why don't you show him." Replied Holly, while she was cutting something.  


The Lip Pink fluttered her wing and floated behind Metin, leaning forward. The boy was a bit uncomfortable to have the monster's head almost resting on his shoulder.  


Mei pointed the options on the screen as she explained them. "Monster is the stats of your monster, Breeder is your own data, like your winning and loss record or your level. Book is where you can see all the monster species you regenerated, Battles allow you to contact the Central Unit of AGIMA and register for battles. Holly's Mon Unit doesn't have Scan, I don't know what that means."  


A delicious aroma filled the air, Holly seamed like a great cook. Metin tought it smelled like stew. She looked back from her cooking when Mei talked about the Scan option.  


"The Scan option let you acess the opponent's monster data. Your Special Mon Unit also keep data from that monster's specie into your Book, but you don't have the basic stats. It gives you great tactical advantage in a battle, you know what to expect." Explained the experienced breeder. "Mei, it's getting late, you and Kanar should eat and go to sleep."   


"What? Right now?" Complained the ducken.  


"Kanar, your a baby, you need your sleep! It says here your 0 years 0 month old!" Replied Metin.  


The monster glared at the boy with his black eyes "I'm not going to sleep because you say so!" 

"Metin is right Kanar, your still weak from your regeneration." Added Holly.  


"Allright then, if you say so Holly." Agreed the Kokkung.  


Metin almost fell off his chair "Why do you listen to her? I'm your breeder!"   


"Because SHE knows what she's talking about! You don't!" Answered Kanar.  


"I do so!" Shouted Metin edging toward his monster above the little table  
"No you don't!" Shouted back the monster, doing the same.  
"Yes I do!"  
"No you don't!"  
"Yes I do!"  
"No you don't!"  
"Yes I do!"  
"No you don't!"  
"Yes I do!"  
"No you don't!"  


"Dinner!" Chimed Mei, putting a little plate in the middle of the table, intterupting the argument. 

Kanar and Metin looked down, in the little metal plate was three red and white pills.  


"What the heck is that?" Asked the Ducken.  


"Vitamins!" Answered Mei, smiling as she popped one in her mouth from her own plate.  


Kanar looked dissapointed "That's dinner?" 

"Mei likes vitamins and I only buy monster food once a month. You'll have to take those until we can get something else." Explained Holly.  


"I like them because it's easy to eat, you just swallow them." Added the pixie.  


"Your weird... I got something else you could swallow later tonight!" Said Kanar, snickering, until he was smacked by Metin, his head flew backward a few feet before it came back to his body like it was linked by an invisible rubber band.  


"What you do that for?" Complained the monster, holding his head.  


The boy glared at him"Your too young for this kind of innuendo! Your perverted duck!" 

Holly was shaking her head.  


Kanar quickly ate his food and headed for the door. "Com'on Pink! Let's go... So what side of the hay stack do you want?" He asked, opening the door.  


Mei floated toward the door. "Doesn't matter... Good night Holly! Good night Metin!"   


"Good Night!" Both human replied at the same time.  


Once the two monsters were out of the house, Metin returned to check out his Mon Unit. He checked his Monster's stats and liking.   


"Hmm... We'll have to train in INT, ACC and DEF... Kanar got the TufArmor trait, it gives him greater DEF but lower dodge ability... oh he's got Up Fire too... So far he has two moves : Missiles and Wing Flap... his liking is... Pixies?!? And his dislike... WHAT?!?" The boy suddenly jump up from his chair.  


"What?" Asked Holly, turning around, concerned.  


"My name is in his dislike." Groaned Metin, sweatdroaping.  


Holly barely managed to hold out a giggle. "Give it time."   


"Why doesn't he want to obey me?" Asked the boy.  


"You're a rookie trainer, monster sense a Breeder's level. Monsters are fighters by nature and they prefer to be with someone who can make them strong, if they don't feel like you can make them strong, they won't obey you... for the moment. Like I said, give it time and you'll grow closer together than you think." Answered the older girl.  


Metin gave Holly a disbelieving look "Closer to him? That monster is a pervert! He's like Donald Duck with an hormone boost! Did you heard him earlier? How can an artificial type monster born of the combination of two artificial monster can be this... lively." 

"I know what you mean...even if I don't know this Donald Duck thing you mention... anyway, dinner's ready." 

Holly put down a wooden bowl in front of the boy, in it was a meaty stew that looked delicious. It had a bunch of vegetables in it. Holly them put down a palte of mangos at the center of the table, probably for desert and served the two of them a glass of water. Holly sat down and was about to start eating when she noticed Metin was just looking down at his dish, his hair were hiding his eyes. She then saw a single tear drop fall onto the table.  


"What's wrong?" She ask softly.  


The boy snifled and another tear felt down. "I'm...glad to be here...it's just... I just realised I might never see my... parents... my family... my friends... my home again... I wish I could tell them I'm allright... that I'll probably be happy here... I'm... I'm sad I can't just tell them not to worry." 

Holly wasn't sure how to act, she didn't even know where this strange boy came from, she had no choice but to say something encouraging. "We'll find a way... don't worry." 

"Thank you Holly... thank you for accepting me." The boy replied, and they proceeded to eat his dinner.  


Neither of them spoke during dinner, or until bed time. Then they slipped into bed, still wearing their day clothes, and the light were blowed out.  


-----------  


Metin stepped out of HIS house-after all he was the breeder of the Hopestar Ranch so he could say it was his house- and stretched his arms as the sun shone down on him. He looked around and smiled. His ranch... this was gonna be his first day of training! This would be great. He heard a creaking door and turned toward the nearby barn. The door was opening and Kanar was coming out, yawning as he stretch his wings. Mei shot out into the air, flying above her friend. She flew high into the sky and stretched out her legs and arms before landing down beside Metin.  


"GOOD MORNING!" She chimed happily, and loudly.  


"Good Morning Mei! Good morning Kanar." Replied the boy.  


The Ducken just turned his head around muttering a "Yeah yeah... good morning schmorning."  


"Good Morning everyone!" Said Holly, coming out of the house.  


"Ready for some training? I tought we could start slow with some INT training today!Even tough I'm not very sure how to proceed." Proposed the boy, walking toward his Kokkung.  


"What do you think Mei? Want to join in?" Asked Holly.  


The Lip Pink nodded in agreement."Cool! We can meditate together Kanar!" 

A few minutes later both Kanar and Mei were sitting on the ground in front of the house, their eyes closed and uttering mantras every second or so. Metin was looking at them while Holly was sitting on the bench, reading a book calmly.  


"That's it?" Asked the boy " They do that all day and their INT score raise?"  


"Pretty much yep." Answered Holly, making the boy sweatdrop.  


"Remind me to keep INT training for rainy days... at least I'll have rain to watch. Tomorow we'll train accuracy. I'm sure it's more interesting." He complained.  


This went on for a while, Metin just standing there tapping his foot rythmnically. Suddenly all that was disturb by a loud crashing sound coming from behind the house and barn. This took both Kanar and Mei out of their meditative trance and they both felt back on their back. Metin could almost see the words 'FAILURE' written in blue in front of him, like in the game. Altough his monster's failed training was the least of his concern. 

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" He asked, rushing to go around the house.  


Everybody followed him, they passe betweem the house and the barn, and quickly emerged on the other side. On that side the Hopestar Ranch was separated from the next ranch by a small stone wall standing before a strip of forest and something had just crashed right through it! A... A Psiroller was laying on the ground! It seamed beat up and slowly got up. Metin gasped, it was as big as him, bigger than Kanar and Mei, it was a medium size monster. The Psiroller growled angrily, glaring toward the gap in the wall. then a shaped stepped through the trees. It was an Antlan!  


It was totally black with red eyes and it's shell seam to be polished and reflecting light. Metin had no idea what type of monster it was. The Psiroller charged toward the black Antlan who quickly dodged it, moving aside with awesome reflexes. While the monster was next to him he charged in with a series of punch...a punch Rush attack! That move sent the Psiroller flying to his side. It quickly recovered but the black Antlan was charging him with his right fist ablaze. He layed in a powerful Fire Punch move and sent the bigger monster aback once more. Another figure, this time human, then stepped through the gap. It was a boy, about Metin's age and height but with black spikey hair, one strand hiding one of his eye, the visible one was black. He was wearing a black chinese shirt with red highlights and black loose pants. His Mon-Unit was black too and Metin gasped when he notice it was metalic black! All shiny like his monster.  


"An Onyx Mon Unit..." Whispered Holly.  


"time to finish this off Darkalon! METEOR!" Ordered the boy, speaking in his opened Mon Unit.  


The antlan, named Darkalon lept up into the air and glowed brightly. From his glowing form suddenly erupted small light balls, letting a trail of light behind. The attack hit and created a series of explosion on impact. When the smoke cleared all that was left of the Psiroller was a black tablet. It looked a lot like a GBA cartridge, only it was twice as big and made out of solid stone with strange markings on it. Metin stared at the scene, schocked  


"What...what happened ... to that Psiroller?" Asked Metin.  


"It... lost too much life energy... it reverted into a tablet... now it will take a whole year before it can be turned into a monster again." Explained Holly, softly. 

"Oh..." Said the boy, as if noticing the crowd for the first time. "You must be my new neigbhor."  


Metin was furious at the seamingly cold blooded breeder who just turned a Psiroller into a tablet "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? Why did you crashed through MY WALL!" 

"That Psiroller was a stray, he interupted Darkalon's training. He had to be tought a lesson." Replied the dark haired boy, closing his Mon Unit as his red eyed monster walked next to him. "My name is Chiroh Heruno of the Heruno Clan and I am the owner and Breeder of the VictoryBlade Ranch."   


Metin went bug-eyed with anger "You...you beat up that wild homeless monster like that just because he interupted your TRAINING?"   


"YEAH! THAT'S NOT NICE!" Squawked Kanar in agreement.  


Both Mei and Holly nodded sternly in aproval.  


Chiroh just sneered, crossing his arm, showing off he had impressive muscle for a boy his age "I do not care what little breeders like you think."   


"Little BREEDER? My name's Metin Uchara and I will become the GREATEST BREEDER ON AGE ISLAND! You better remember my name!" Shouted back the other boy, obviously furious as he stomped toward the black haired boy while Kanar did the same toward the black Antlan.  


The Victory blade breeder just scowled. "You and what awesome monster?" He asked.  


Metin growled, he wasn't sure of the answer, but then he realised what to answer. "THIS ONE!" He answered, pointing to Kanar "KANAR! MY AWESOME KOKKUNG!"   


Kanar was taken aback by this sudden vote of confidence and leaped away from the pointing Metin "WHAT?!"  


Holly shook her head as Mei applauded happily, supporting her friends. But Darkalon, the Antlan, and Chiroh were less than impressed and laughed out loud mockingly.  


"That excuse for a rubber duck? HAHAHAHAHA!" Chuckled the black monster.  


Chiroh opened his Mon Unit and point it toward Kanar, pressing the Scan option.  


"Kanar, Kokkung, Ducken/Durahan, POW: Level 2, INT: Level 2, ACC: Level 3, SPD: Level 2, DEF: Level 4, LIF: Level 3. Your pathetic, even if you have a Special Mon Unit. Take a look a Darkalon's stat ,if you know how, your Monster wouldn't stand a chance against him." He declared.  


"I'll do just that!" Replied Metin, doing the same. "Hmmm... Darkalon... Phantom, Antlan/... MONOL?!?"  


"Monol? I tought Monols were extinct!" Gasped Holly. 

"They are... but Phantoms aren't. Phantom is just one of the many specie I can acess using my family's secret code. My family has a long history of powerful breeder and we are renown for our Antlan and especially Durahan monsters, we also take great pride in training with out monsters." Bragged Chiroh, smirking.  


Metin growled and tried to ignore the boy's arrogance and checked the rest of his monster's stat... sadly the boy was right. " POW: Level 5, INT: Level 3, ACC: Level 3, SPD: Level 3, DEF: Level 4, LIF: Level 4..." he read slowly.  


But Metin shook it off, he knew numbers like that don't mean anything in real life, watching too many Pokemon episode convinced him of that. "IT DOESN'T MATTER! You still crashed here RUDELY and bother OUR TRAINING! I... I... I CHALLANGE YOU TO A MONSTER BATTLE!" He shouted, too close to Chiroh's face who pushed the annoying Breeder of the Hopestar Ranch away.  


Holly gasped, she knew this would spell trouble.  


"I'm sorry pal but I can't accept." Simply said the boy, turning away and heading for the gap slowly. "Let's go do some more training Darkalon."   


"WHAT THE... YOU COWARD YOUR RUNNING AWAY! HAH! WHERE IS YOUR FAMILY'S PRIDE NOW?" Challanged Metin.  


"It's just how the rules go, my monster is already D-Class, yours is only E-Class. Once you won an AGIMA Official Tournament I will accept your challenge. Until then, stick with the kid stuff, ROOKIE!" Called back.  


"Try to get a REAL monster before that!" Added Darkalon. 

And with that and a mocking chuckle, Chiroh Heruno and Darkalon dissapeared among the trees.  


Kanar and Metin stood there, staring at the hole in the forest. Fire was burning in their eyes.  


"Metin... I want to beat that Phantom!" Said Kanar.  


"And I want to wipe the smirk off that jerk's face! Holly...when's the next Official?" Replied Metin.  


Holly checked her Mon Unit. "Week 4 of next month... you'll never have the time to reach the level to beat the E-Class Official by then, we're already at the begining of Week 2!" Answered the girl.  


"We'll just have to train harder... that still leaves us with the equivalent of 5 weeks. Is there a tournament in the meantime?" Proposed Kanar.  


"Well... there's one next week but..."Started Holly before Metin, who was doing something on his Mon Unit interupted her.  


"Already registered! Com'on Kanar, we can still finish that Meditation training today!"  


Holly sweatdropped when her over eager friend and his Monster ran off back to the front of the house.  


"He doesn't know what he's gotten himself into... the Heruno family is renowed for being fearless, and Chiroh was almost raised by monsters, he's as savage as a civilized kid can get." Commented Holly, shaking her head as she looked over the gap in the stone wall.  


"AND WHO'S GONNA FIX THAT?" She asked out loud, shaking her fist in the air in the general direction Metin and Kanar had ran off.  


**To Be Continued...**  



	5. The Aroma of Defeat

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 5: The Aroma of Defeat _  


Kanar and Mei were back to meditating, hoping to still get a raise in their intelligence score, even a small and insignificant one. Holly had resumed her reading and Metin was observing the tablet that used to be a Psiroller that he was holding.  


"We'll keep this and in a year we'll regenerate that monster, but I don't know what we'll do with it then." He then said, pulling Holly away from her book.  


"We won't be able to keep it here, not without a bigger barn, and we don't have the budget to get a bigger one yet." She explained.  


"How much money do we have anyway? I know I don't have any, unless they take ATM cards at the store... wich I doubt." Inquired the boy.  


Holly reached to her pocket and produced a small leather bag, the sound of coins hitting each other was heard and she checked it. " We have about 3000 G. I got more in a FIMBA bank, if we ever need more... I just didn't want to bring too much with me on travel."   


"No... keep your money, we'll just win some in the tournament next week!" Boldly declared Metin."I want to get back at the arrogant Chiroh guy."  


"Be careful, the Heruno family is renowned for it's brutal fighting and lack of compassion. You saw how he finished that poor Psiroller didn't you?" Replied Holly, in a calm and wise manner.  


"Yeah...something wasn't right with that fight tough... I checked his monster's stat, and his INT score was his lowest... so why was his Meteor, an INT move, so powerful?" Asked the boy.  


"It's because of a trait only the Heruno family know how to grant their monsters... UpCritic ." Started Holly. "Their monster can target the weakest spot of an opponent and deliver 4 times the normal damage if they suceed at a critical hit, instead of the usual double damage... but it comes at the cost of accuracy. Hitting a particular spot on an opponent is much harder than simply hitting an opponent."   


(AN: No, that trait doesn't exist for real, I made it up, if there is something similar that exist I don't know about it. )  


Metin was rubbing his chin. He then opened up his Mon Unit and checked his monster's data. He had TufArmor and UpFire, and his speed was very low. He then started to rub his chin, then removed his hat to scratch his head.  


"I GOT IT! In order to beat this guy we'll do something unexpected!" He suddenly declared, almost breaking the monster's transe. "I will make Kanar train in speed rather than defense! It's not his natural strength, but since he got TufArmor, he already take less damage than an opponent with equal defense! If we boost his speed, not only will other not expect a speedy Ducken, but we'll also have the edge on Chiroh's Darkalon!"   


"It's a nice plan, but how do you expect to raise your monster's SPD score high enough so it will matter in the tournament? If you don't get it at the right level before the tournament, both your defense and speed will be too low to be useful, it's a huge risk." Pointed out Holly.  


"If you want to suceed in life you gotta take risks! Don't worry... I'm sure it'll work out fine, and with my guidance Kanar will win his battles easily!" Replied the boy, putting his hat back on.  


Holly could have sworn she saw Kanar smirk mockingly, but she dismissed the tought, the Kokkung was too deep in his trance to notice...right.  


"What we need is a new training, something that would boost Kanar's speed AND his inteligence score..."Commented Metin, looking toward the sky pensively.  


The rest of the day went without trouble, the monsters finished their training by dinner time and both had won 3 points to their INT score. A slow but fair begining. Altough Metin wasn't very satisfied. He stayed silent during the entire dinner and he barely wished Holly a good night before he went to bed. Finding a new form of training was top priority, something that would make his monster's scores raise at incredible speed! But what? This question lingered in his mind until he finally fell asleep.  


---------  


Metin awoke with a start, sweat running down his forehead. He had a nightmare, an horrible one where he was being chased through a dark forest by what appeared to be a Joker monster. The creature was shooting balls of fire at him and he was running away, trying to dodge the attacks, but they were getting harder and harder to dodge and yet Metin was getting better and better at dodging the dangerous projectile. He wasn't sure what that dream meant but he put it aside, deciding concentrating on the training they had to do. Once again he ate in silence and once breakfeast was over he and Holly when out to meet their monsters.  


"You ready for some speed training today Kanar?" Asked Metin to his Kokkung.  


"Meh... if it help me defeatin' that arrogant Darkalon guy you betcha I am!" Answered the monster.  


"Speed's my highest score!" Bragged Mei, raising in the air for a few seconds, as if it was emphasizing her point.  


"I know... I checked your stats. Your a SPD/INT/ACC monster, and your lowest score is DEF. Your LIF level isn't very high either, you better keep up the work on speed Mei or you'll be easy to crush." Replied Metin, trying his best to sound experienced.  


But Mei was clearly un-impressed "DUH!"   


Metin was about to ask what she meant by that when a far off voice behind him called: "HOLLY!"  


"Hey! We have a visitor!" Chimed the called one.  


At the entry gate of the ranch was a girl about Metin's age, but shorter than him, standing. She was wearing red short and a pink shirt, she was waving at Holly with a bright smile. Metin recognized her and noted she looked cuter in person, it was Aroma! From the first game! She was with a strange little monster. It looked like it had a large bell of some sort on it's head, with a little ribbon, it had a large...dress that look very rigid, a big button on the front of it's chest and the from of the dree bottom that looked like a bell. The sleeves looked rigid too, a bit like potery and were large compare to the little ball-like hand he could see from them. The monster had a round pink head with little red cheek and black eyes. It seamed to be in a cross position, bouncing up and down on one feet, alterning betweem it's two ball like feet. As they aproached the duo Metin wonder what type of monster it was. Probably a new monster that got introduced in the instruction manual... darn he should have checked it, maybe there would have been a warning about getting sucked into a paralelle universe.. or the future, wichever it is. 

"Hi Aroma!" Greeted Holly.  


"Hi Holly! Hi Mei!" Replied Aroma, she had a very cheerful voice and seamed very happy, constantly smiling."I came to see the new breeder! Mr. Bolzoi told me he arrived through a tablet!"  


"Hi my name's Metin."Said the boy, blushing as Aroma suddenly ended up inches away from him, looking at him with a piercing glare.  


Metin was taken aback by her glare, she looked like she wanted to see right through him, but suddenly she steped back and smile, closing her eyes (like this ^_^ ) "Your kinda cute, even tough your costume is weird!" She said.  


Metin blushed some more "Thanks..."But he shook it off "HEY! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WEIRD?" He then shouted, making Kanar and Mei snicker.  


"My my, what a temper." Chuckled Aroma.  


"Stop teasing the rookie. Metin this is Aroma, she and her brother Zest run the Spring Blossom Ranch all the way in the valley on the other side of town. We met when I was still the FIMBA representative for the Amity Matches" Explained Holly.  


Metin knew who was Aroma but decided not to let it show "Nice to meet you, this is Kanar, my Kokkung!" Introduced Metin, tired of the constant poking of his leg that started when they got to the front gate. "You happy now?" The boy asked, looking down at his monster.  


"Sure." Nodded the Ducken.  


"Well this is Suzi my Suzurin, she's my most recent monster. She's still in E Class." Added Aroma.  


"Hi!" Timidly said the little monster, shaking Mei's hand and Kanar's wing. 

"So how is the ranch going?" Inquired Holly.  


"Very well, we are doing great on her own now that we got experience and fame." Started Aroma, before turning to Metin "Two years ago our Ranch was pretty run down but Mr. Mardoc of the AGIMA invited a breeder from the continent to help us, his name was Keoki, he helped us out a great deal but he had to go back a few months ago."  


Metin had to hold back his gasp. Keoki was that name he gave himself in his Monster Rancher Advance game! Somehow he had named it after a real guy! That was SO weird. Altough the last time he played the game he was already up to Year 112! Maybe time is just made faster in the games he tough.  


"Hey Metin! I heard you're participating in the Youth Cup next week! Think your ready so soon?" Then asked Aroma.  


"Sure we will, Kanar is gonna do great!"Bragged the boy "I guess we'll see each other there then."   


Aroma nodded. "Sure will. Lucky for you the tournament had to be postponed." She commented.  


Metin turned to Holly quizically. "The Youth Cup is supposed to be held in April, last month, but a stray golem attacked and it had to be postponed to next week. Luckily that stray got captured... I wasn't there but I heard Chiroh was the one who beat it." Answered the older girl, the mention of Chiroh's name made Metin grind his teeth.  


The other girl nodded "You're right, I was there and I saw it. That guy is ruthless... not an easy opponent to face." 

"He's our neigbhor." Growled Metin, still not over that humiliating rejection from the other breeder.  


"Wow...that sucks... well I should leave you to your training. It was very nice seeing you guys. I'm looking forward to knowing you better Metin. " Then Said Aroma, obviously ready to leave.   


"Wait!" Suddenly called the boy. "I have an idea! Why don't we battle! Your Suzi against my Kanar!" He proposed.  


Aroma stopped dead in her track, Holly could have sworn she saw a sparkle of excitement in the younger girl's eyes "Oooh... the rookie want to challange the experienced breeder... allright pal! Challenge accepted!"   


"Time to show what I can do!" Cheered Kanar.  


It took the two breeders and two monsters a few second to get into place. The ranch had the perfect spot for a battle. A large round patch of dry dirt with only a few grass sprouts here and there. Metin wasn't sure how exactly to proceed but he got into position behind Kanar and opened up his Mon-Unit. He did a quick scan of Suzi.  


_Name: Suzi  
Specie: Suzurin(Suzurin+Suzurin)  
Breed: Suzurin  
Age: 2 Month  
Trait: UpIQ, HiAim  
Moves: Pokorin, Pokkorin, Aim Hit_

But this wasn't what Metin was interested in, what he wanted to see was her stats.  


POW: Level 2  
INT: Level 3  
ACC: Level 4   
SPD: Level 3  
DEF: Level 4  
LIF: Level 2  


"ARE YOU READY?" Asked Aroma, getting into the same kind of position behind Suzi, opening her Mon-Unit as well, her was a cheerful magenta color, but it wasn't metallic, meaning she couldn't scan Kanar's stats. This could give them an edge. 

"I SURE AM!" Replied Metin.  


Suddenly his Mon-Unit's screen went black, save for a little rectangle in the center of the screen.  


"Press 'A' to initiate Battle Protocol." Read Metin.   


Not wanting to be left behind he pressed A and the screen switch to a familiar screen, the pre-battle screen like in the game, where players can see their opponent's stats, but this time it took a few seconds for Suzi's levels to appear. The boy guessed Aroma couldn't see Kanar's data that way either. Then the screen changed again to the battle screen! With the ranch background! It was just like in the game with the LIF bar, the guts point, the timer, EVERYTHING, the only diference was that this time you would have to order directly. The signal for the begining of the battle appeared on the screen.  


"Kanar, do you hear me?"Asked the boy in his Mon-Unit.  


"Sure I can, so what do I do now... BREEDER." Replied the ducken.  


"Allright! Stay back until I figure out what to do, she got no far range attacks and I don't know much about Suzurins!" Ordered the boy.  


"GO FOR IT SUZI!" Shouted Aroma on the other side of the field.  


Suzi dashed forward, bouncing toward Kanar who dodged to the side, trying to keep away from the little bell shaped monster. She was fast. Metin looked at his screen, they were stuck in middle range but she wasn't attacking yet. Kanar backed away, but she dashed again, as Kanar avoided meeting Suzi she almost went crashing into Aroma before she slided to a halt and turned back toward the Kokkung. Kanar tok this chance and managed to get back to far range.  


"ALLRIGHT KANAR! MISSILE ATTACK!" Ordered MEtin dramatically.  


"Sheesh...no need to shout in your unit, I hear you fine!"Complained Kanar, stopping his backward movement.  


The Kokkung opened his beak and inhale before shooting out a missile from his open beak. The little missile looked like a primitive rocket, barely big enough to come out of a ducken's throat, mimicking Kanar's color scheme. The blow from the missile's sudden departure sent the monster backward. Kanar collapsed into his diferent pieces to the ground but quickly got back together as the missile sailed through the air toward Suzi. She didn't even tried to dodge and just stood there dancing! The missile hit and the explosion created a HUGE smoke cloud.  


"HIT!" Cheered Metin, before he looked down at his screen.  


"WHAAA?!? 1 DAMAGE ONLY?!?" He gasped, realising what had happened... the Missile was a gut depleation move! "She only lost 20 guts point!"  


As the smoke cleared, Suzi appeared, unharmed, her hat brought down and her arms crossing in front of her body, she had endure the hit.  


"KANAR! Get in there with you wing slap! "Then ordered the boy.  


It took a few second for Kanar to realised what the order was before he dashed toward Suzi. Once again she didn't move! She took the same position she had when she appeared from the smoke cloud. Kanar was now in close range and shouted a battle cry before unleashing a quick series of slaps. Left, right, left, right, left and right again. Metin could see he was using a series of attack rather than just one, because his Mon-Unit showed Kanar's guts quickly depleating! But still, Suzi was enduring the hit, take 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 damage points only from the series of slap, then 6, 7, 8... but then the attacks started to get slower. Kanar was running out of guts, he was getting tired! Metin realised how foolish he had been, Suzi's defense was this, even if her LIF points weren't high, she could whistand most attacks. Now Kanar's guts were down to zero and the poor Kokkung hand to stopped his attack, he was panting heavily as he let his wings hand to his side.  


"GET OUT OF THERE QUICK!" Warned Metin, but this quick alert only managed to confused Kanar as the '????' sign appeared on Metin's screen.  


"NOW!" Shouted Aroma.  


Suzi realed back her head and *WHAM!* gave a solid headbutt to Kanar, hitting him with her large solid hat. The attack sent the Kokkung's little head backward, making his whole body fall down on the ground in pieces. It only did 3 points of damage but it took a second for Kanar to get back together, this second was all that Suzi needed to get back to middle range! Metin realised what was going on. The timer was down to 18 seconds, Kanar wasn't badly damaged but he had no guts left, where as Suzi had over 80! And to top it all, his Kokkung was stil confused by the Pokkorin attack he had received! 

"Aim Hit! Let him have it!" Ordered Aroma.  


Suzi bounced backward and held out her left arm. Suddenly her little round paww shot out of the sleeve, completly disconnected from her arm! It his the confused Kanar in his middle section! Sending it flying back to the ground and his other upper part falling on his lower section. The attack wasn't very strong but it managed to do 4 points of damage. The sphere shaped hand returned to Suzi who quickly held out her other arm and shot her right hand. This time it hit Kanar's head, delivering a critical hit! The hand bounced back as Kanar felt apart once again. He was still in confused state, unable to answer to Metin's frantic command to move out of the way when Suzi's left hand hit him again! This time he held together but the right hand was just second away, at the last mintue Kanar recovered and managed to bring his wings up to block the attack. It did some damage but it was minor. Metin was about to order a counter attack but a buzzing sound was heard. The time for the battle was over. There was a moment of silence as Metin stared at his screen. The two life bar were relatively similar, but Aroma looked incredibly confident and her Monster didn't looked as tired as the panting Kanar.  


"Judge..."Started to read Metin " Kanar: 80,3%... Suzi... 81,2%... lost... we lost." He realised.  


Kanar let himself fall down on the ground, barely managing to hold his body in one piece as he lay down on his back. He didn't felt pain as he didn't receive that much damage, but he was tired, using so much guts and those hits. Metin walked over his monster and kneeled beside him.  


"You allright?" Asked the boy.  


"I'll survive." Just answered the Kokkung, turning on his side to get his back to face his breeder. 

"Well it's been fun Metin, I just hope you improve before next week. I'll see you at the youth cup. Take care of yourself guys! Com'on Suzi." Declared Aroma, picking up her small monsters in her arm before heading toward the gate. "Thanks for the experience!" She then thanked.  


Holly and Mei walked over the boy and his monster, she knew they would feel devastated by this, but she couldn't let them fall prey to doubt.  


"Are you okay Kanar?" Asked the Lip Pink.  


"Yeah... a good meal and a good night of sleep will be enough." Slowly answered the monster, sitting up.  


"I guess we're not as good as I tought we were... "Commented Metin softly, his head was bowed and his hat was hiding his eyes.  


"Oh Metin I'm sorry... But it's just one loss..." Started Holly, putting her hand on the boy's shoulder.  


Suddenly the boy looked u, his gaze meeting with Kanar's. He wasn't crying as Holly tought he was and he hit the ground his his fist in anger. 

"We'll just have to get STRONGER!" He declared, raising his other fist in front of his face "I swear on my honor, I WILL make you stronger and we will make it to Master Class! No matter what obstacle we'll keep on going! What do you say... partner?" He then asked the monster.  


Kanar stared at the boy for a moment, seeing fire burning in the young breeder's eyes. "You got it! I didn't believe you before Metin, but now, I'm sure we'll make it to the top no matter what!" He agreed.  


"Then tomorow..." Started the boy, getting up. "We train... FOR REAL! Our goal... VICTORY!!"  


Holly couldn't help but smile. That boy sure was a number, not only was he weird and mysterious, but he was stubborn and ready to go through any hardship to win. She could only hope that his passion would not die down if he has to face another loss. The tournament was just next week, and Kanar was far from being ready... then there was the matter of the Official at the end of the month. For now she decided to trust the younger boy, maybe he did have what it takes to be a Master... after all, he did get a Platinium Mon-Unit.  


**To Be Continued...**  



	6. New Training

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: Sorry guys it's taking me so long, I'm really busy nowadays and I barely had time to work on this, so not to make you wait any further I'm giving you this little part. Next episode will cover the ENTIRE Youth Cup! Hopefully anyway :p. 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 6:New Training _  


Metin emerged from the small house of the Hopestar Ranch with a huge grin on his face. It was the begining of a new day, the kind of begining he was getting used to, and he steped out into the morning Sun. He had that weird chasing dream again, but this time he understood the message! He looked back at the drowsy Holly slowly walking out of the house, yawning.  


"You know you toss and turn too much, you kept me awake until late in the middle of the night." Complained the older girl.  


Metin just dismissed it "Meh, it'll toughen you up."   


"So what do we do today?" Asked Mei, flying in from the barn.  


The Lip Pink pixie looked just as energetic as Metin was while Kanar yawned just like Holly. Holly remembered Metin saying that Kanar enjoyed sleeping, it was written in his 'Likes' space, right above 'Dilikes: Metin' in his stats. For a brief moment Holly tought that Mei might be more suited to Metin's energetic nature than the grumbling Kanar. But seeing the fire in the eyes of both the Breeder and Monster made her realise they had both the same thirst for victory and achievement, something the playful Mei didn't share.  


"I just came up with a new way to train! With that we might be able to defeat Suzi in the Youth Cup! And come home with a shiney trophy AND money!" Proudly declared the boy.  


"If you say so Rookie. So what's your idea?" Asked Kanar, yawning one last time.  


"I'll show you, I'll be right back..." Answered Metin, before rushing over the shed near the barn.  


It was in that shed that all the training supply was kept. Soon Metin emerged from it with one of the target used in ACC training. With some effort and a silly looking uses of his feet, Metin manage to yank the target off the supporting pole and he held it in front of him with a weird grin.  


"We'll use rope to tie one of these on my back and one to my chest. I'll be running around the ranch and Kanar will have to hit me with his Missile Attack! Tomorow he'll have to use his Wing Slap!"Announced the boy, shouting a bit too loud, even if he was at a certain distance.  


"ALLRIGHT! GREAT IDEA!" Cheered Kanar, a mischeivous grin at the edge of his beak.  


Metin walked back to the little group, noticing Holly's doubtful and quizzical glances "It's simple, he'll train his SPD and LIF by running after me, hitting a moving target will increase his ACC and using his missle AND trying to find me will train his INT! Tomorow we'll train his POW! Isn't that great?"He then asked.  


"I agree! This will be fun!" Giggled Kanar, before Holly gave his little head a slap, sending it tumbling down to the ground.  


"It's crazy!" Stated Holly, as Kanar's head was reeled back by the attraction force keeping the Ducken in one piece, making the monster's head feel like a yo-yo. "You could get seriously hurt! Why don't you ask Mei to hold the target with some rope from higher in the sky?" Inquired the girl stomping in front of the foolish boy.  


"Yeah, no reason to put you in harm's way." Agreed Mei.  


"Sorry but I have to do this, I'm in charge of Kanar's training, and if he doesn't have motivation it'll never work. Beside, Chiroh trains with his monsters no? Well I CAN DO THE SAME!" Replied the boy, looking dead serious.  


Holly glared back at him, like he was crazy. She tried her best but she could see his determination. There was no way she could make him back down, so she might as well give up and help him ot a little. 

The older girl sighed."I give up, there's no hope to change you mind. I'm a pretty good judge of character and I can see the determination in your eyes." She stopped for a moment, scratching her chin."I was planning on going in town today buying a few supplies, I didn't expect to have a second monster on the ranch and I don't want to run out of nutrient. I'll also check out Crow's Monster Item shop, I wasn't planning on buying anything, but if you do your training well Kanar... I'll buy you a Dodorin cake! "  


"Dodorin Cake? ALLRIGHT!" Cheered the little monster, jumping up in the air, his separate parts landing one after the other with stacking noises.   


"What about me?" Inquired Mei.  


"YOU will have to look out for those two idiots. "Holly pointed Kanar and Metin " And be sure they don't get hurt. If you do a good job I'll give you some candies."  


"YOOHOO! CANDIES!" Mei did a double backflip in the air out of joy.  


"Allright, Rookie, Let's get you strapped to those target so you can do your crazy stunt and I can go shopping!" Added Holly.  


"Thanks Holly!" Replied Metin.  


The girl smiled "I'm your assistant, it's my job to help you!"   


-------------  


Metin was hidding behind a huge rock, panting heavily. He had managed to confused Kanar by going many time around the house then ducking (hehehe ducking a ducken) behind that old upside down barrel behind the barn before rushing to the spot he was on. He had already received a missile to his front plate and it hurt like heck, even for a guts depleating move.   


"I need to catch my breath." Commented the boy.  


"Looks like I catch you before that!" shouted Kanar, leaping on top of the huge rock, wings up in a menacing manner.  


"WWAAAAAH!" Screamed the boy, running away from the hail of missiles... maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.  


----------  


Holly came back to the Hopestar ranch two hour after she left. She was carrying a basket with the little supply she had bought. All in all she had to pay only 300G, it wasn't bad at all. She passes the gate and saw Mei, sitting on the rock bench by the house, looking rather bored. Right in front of her on the ground were laying both Metin and Kanar, apparantly out of breath AND energy.The girl groaned. Metin was covered with dirt and ashes and the target on his chest was all black and cracked. It was probably the same for the one he was laying on._Must be uncomfortable_ tought Holly for a moment,but for now she had other things to worry about.  


"How did it go?" She asked her monster with a total lack of optimism in her voice.  


"It was fun." Mei smiled " But then they stopped about ten minutes ago so now I'm bored."  


"Hi Holly." Weakly said Metin from the ground, in betweem breath. "Kanar won."   


"I...rock." Agreed the Kokkung.  


The girl shook her head."I told you, but you wanted to train the hard way." 

"Holly...can you...check my Mon Unit...for me?" Asked the boy, not bothering to reply to her last comment.  


"Sure."  


Holly kneeled down and opened the device. She choose the right option and checked the stat. She gasped... she must have remembered wrong. She pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket, Metin had asked her to note Kanar's levels for reference and she had to double check and triple check to be sure she wasn't hallucinating.  


"It...it... it worked!" She stammered "Kanar won 3 points in EVER stats exept POW!" She declared, totally surprised.  


"WOOHOO IT WORKED!" Both Metin and Kanar cheered, sitting up quickly and raising their arm/wing to the sky, startling Mei and Holly.  


But they suddenly felt back to the ground, Kanar's head sliding down from his neck.  


"Metin?!" Asked the girl, crawling over the boy, only to find him...sound asleep.  


"Kanar's asleep too!" Commented Mei.  


"Wow..that new training exhausted him... Com'on Mei, let's prepare some sandwiches, I think they'll be hungry once they wake up. 

**To Be Continued...**  



	7. The Youth Cup, Part 1

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: Yes I didn't give up on this fic! I was just waiting for imspiration to struck! Now I know I said somewhere I was gonna have the entire tournament, but I'm running out of time here so you'll have to wait for the rest. 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 7: The Youth Cup , part 1_  


Kanar smilled happily as he ate the dodorin cake Holly had brought him back from town. It was a wonderful treat. Meanwhile Mei was enjoying her mint candies while observing Holly and Metin. The girl was aplying some sort of herbal ointement to the slight burn on his left cheek.  


"Oooh... feels cold." Commented the boy.  


"That's the point." Holly replied. "I'm still not sure of that crazy training of yours... and your clothes are all dirty, soon you'll need new ones. Luckily you don't have anything broken or worse! You do realise humans aren't made to endure Monster's attack? Even as weak as Kanar's missile?"  


"HEY!" Complained the Kokkung.  


But Metin ignored the protest of his monster. "I'm sorry but that's the best I came up with...beside it was a good workout for me too. My new training program combine ALL the other training into one exercice.. the only one it doesn't include is the Defense training... but with Kanar's TufArmor and his natural tendancy for defense, we'll be allright. His defense will increase during battles, just as our opponent's strength will. Tomorow Kanar will have to use his wing slap to hit me, it might boost his speed even more. We'll take one day off, then train with missile some more and one final day off before the begining of the tournament! I'm a real genius."   


Holly sighed, she knew she would never be able to convince the boy that his training was dangerous. Soon Kanar would grow stronger and stronger, using more powerful attacks than the two ones he knew now, and one day or another Metin's new training would have to go before he get seriously infured...or worse. At least for now Kanar was still only in E Class... but the future worried Holly, if the young breeder kept his reckless attitude, things could get ugly. In the meantime she had finished treating his burn and he should be allright, she applied a little bandage to his cheek and went to put away the medical supply... but not too far... you never know.  


"Thanks Holly... hey Kanar, that looks good, can I get a little bite?" Inquired Metin, turning to his monster savouring his cake.  


Kanar seamed to hesistate, but he remembered who had caused the burn on the boy's cheek and guilt made him accept the demand."Sure!"  


With his fork he got a bit of the cake with icing and offered it to the human.  


Holly turned around from what she was doing and saw that Metin was about to eat that piece of Dodorin cake "Metin wait that's..." But it was too late, the boy's mouth had closed down on the fork.  


The fork came out clean and the breeder seamed to think for a while, tasting the cake. Holly was ready for some cry of digust. Dodorin cake was made for monster, and thus like every other monster food item, tasted HORRIBLE to humans! Monsters even had their own type of potatoes for them to eat! The only thing monster and humans can share are bevrages. But to her total surprise and shock Metin smiled and seam to apreciate the flavor!  


"Hmm... delicious! Remind me to buy some to celebrate our victory in the Youth Cup! You girls like that cake too?" Proposed Metin.  


"Sure!" Agreed Mei, smiling.  


"Hmmm...no thanks." Simply said Holly, sweatdropping.  


"_Something is weird about that boy...beside the obvious stuff... no humans can stand the taste of Dodorin, let alone Dodorin cake... maybe I shouldn't mention this for now, he might get worried about it._"Tought the older girl, as her new friend was telling the two monster about his mom's cakes, an ounce of sadness in his happy voice.  


----------  


It was finally the day. The day of the Youth Cup. Metin stood in front of the small wooden stadium in front of him with a grin. He had a hat on but it didn'T hide the fact he was wearing bandages on his head. His clothes looked dirty and he now had a small bandage on each cheek and one wrapped around his right wrist.  


"It looks kinda small." He commented to Holly who was beside him with the monsters.  


"Well it's only an E-Class tournament. "Said the girl with a shrug "Are you sure you want to participate? That training of yours got your pretty banged up."  


"Nah, I feel great! Let's go Kanar!" Replied the boy, taking off toward the participant's entrace.  


Holly shook her head before turning to Mei "Let's get seats."   


"This is gonna be fun!" Said the Lip Pink with a great smile.  


The participants entrace was a large gaping hole on the side of the building, large enough for a golem to fit. There was a black haired man in grey featureless clothing standing next to it, he had a metal badge with 'AGIMA' written on it pin to his chest. He was an official and he was holding a pad with papers and seamed ready to note something with his pen. Metin tought he looked more like an accountant than an AGIMA official. 

"Hi there! I'm Metin Uchara!" Said the boy hapilly, only to be replied by a stern look.   


"Open your MonUnit so that I may verify your identity." Stated the man.  


The boy sighed and did as instructed, after a quick verification the boy and his Kokkung were allowed to go in.  


"This guy needs to lighten up, he's as grey as his suit." Grumbled Kanar.  


"Yeah." Agreed the boy.  


Soon they found themself in front of door labeled as the participants preparation room. They entered and found three humans and three other monsters. Just like in the game, this little tournament only had four participants. Metin guessed there wasn't many Breeder on the island to begin with so it was probably rare to find them with monsters at the same level at the same time.  


There was Aroma with Suzi off course but the other two was what Metin was interested in. There was a large teenager, a tad older than Metin, accompagnied by a yellow colored Golem who only had one eye! The guy had blonde hair that matched his monster's coloring. He had a yellow shirt with one of those collar with lace like rope and with a grey sleeveless shirt and brown pants. He was standing in front of his monster with his arm crossed, showing his dull grey MonUnit. The second participant was about Metin's age and wore a straw hat and clothes that made him look like a medieval farm boy. Next to him was a type of monster that Metin considered to be the weirdest ever: an Octopee. Altough the boy's Octopee wasn't totally red but his head and 'arms' were orange and his lower body white. The boy was lazily sitting on a bench, but you could still see his orange MonUnit. When she noticed him, Aroma went over to Metin happilly.   


"Hey Metin! What happened to you? You look like you felt down a cliff!" She commented hapilly.  


"Hello Kanar." Timidly said Suzi.  


"Hi!" Both both replied.   


"He didn't fell off a cliff it's just..." Started Kanar before Metin muted him with a slap behind the head.  


"I fell down the roof! There was a hole so I went to repair it!" He explained quickly.  


"Yeah and he looked silly falling down." Added the Kokkung, getting a chance to mock his breeder.  


"Haha. Anyway... do you know anything about the other guys?" Asked the boy to Aroma, looking across the room to the other two participants.  


"The tall guy is Anzo from the Rocky Peek Ranch, they specialise in Golem and the ranch is built on the side of a mountain, and thus the name. The other is Pete 'Lazy' Garufieldu of the Cat Meadow Ranch, I hear he deserve his nickname but he's pretty knowledgeable. I don't know who you'll face. I hope we don't face each other in our first match, it would be boring." Explained the girl.  


"I know." Agreed Metin.  


That's when another official, this one wearing glasses, but with the same accountant look, came in.  


"We have randomly paired you for the first match. Spring Blossom VS Cat Meadow, Rocky Peek VS Hopestar. The Aroma, Pete, please proceed to the battle arena." Instructed the official.  


"I hope to see you in the final round Metin!" Called the girl, running off to the battle.  


Metin and Kanar were left with Anzo and his monster. Metin smiled at the guy but he just glared back. Not much of a talker, same thing for his monster. Metin decided to check his one eyed golem's stats while the fight betweem Pete and Aroma went out outside. He could hear the sound of the crowd slightly, and it was making him a bit nervous. He opened his MonUnit and discreetly pointed it at the yellow giant.  


_Name: Gigant  
Specie: Titan, (Golem+Suezo)  
Breed: Golem  
Age: 3 month  
Traits: UpEarth, Glutton  
Moves: Punch  
_

(AN: At one point I probably will stop doing this, before I start making mistakes. )  


His stats were all low save for his DEF and POW wich were pretty high for an E-Class, and his LIF wasn't bad either. This guy was powerful and resistant, but not really bright, or accurate. Metin was already thinking he had victory in his grasp. He heard a loud cheer outside and could guess one of the competitor had managed to score a great hit.  


----------  


Holly and Mei were in the stands, cheering on for Aroma. This was a minor tournament but the entry was cheap and the weather fine so the place was packed. The circular arena was a hole in the ground with low stone wall, one both ends the breeder were standing on slab of stone enbedded into the dusty ground. There was a huge clock on each side in betweem the two breeder, it was the stadium timer, underneath one of them was Francesca, holding the flag use to signal the begining of the match. The fight had already begun and was going wild. 

Pete's monster, a Boilpee (Octopee+Arrowhead) had been trying to hit Suzi with his ear/arms since the begining of the fight, but the little monster was blocking the attacks with her wide sleeve. Her defense was even better than when she had face Kanar and Holly was wondering if Metin and his Kokkung would manage to break it. Pete's monster stop for a second and Suzi seized the occasion to deck him across the face with a Pokorin attack, her sleeve enlarging to hit him harder. The Boilpee was sent back confused as the crowd went wild and while the stadium's timer was counting down the last few seconds, Suzi unleashed three Aim Hit that sent the Boilpee down just as the buzzer rang. Holly was impressed, Octopees were know for their evasiveness but it seamed like Suzi's accuracy was too great for it and it was still slightly confused and weakened. Aroma was a great breeder and her strategy worked great so far, but Holly was sure Metin wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, if Aroma was going to use the same technique as before she would probably fail.   


"And the winner is... SUZI!" Declared Francesca after a few seconds, pointing to Aroma and Suzi's corner with her flag. 

The crowd cheered happilly as Aroma waved at them and Pete retreated with his battered Boilpee. Aroma was then led back inside.  


---------  


"WE WON! WE WON!" cheered Aroma as she and Suzi entered the preparation room once again.  


"Congratulation Aroma! I'll do my best to see you in the finals!" Replied Metin.  


"HA! You'll have to beat me first, rookie!" Declared Anzo, chuckling slightly. "Gigant will crush your puny Kokkung!"  


"WHO'S PUNY?" Roared Kanar, ready to jump on the annoying breeder, only held back by the arrival of the official with glasses.  


"Metin, Anzo, you're up!" He declared.  


The two boys walked toward the exit, their monsters in tow. It was time for Metin and Kanar to proove their worth to the inhabitants of the island. Metin emerged from the building into the sun bathed arena, surrounded by the public cheering and waving, he noticed Holly and Mei among them and waved. Both Breeder were led to their side of the battling arena that Metin immediatly nicknamed 'the pit'. Both monster jumped in, first Kanar who barely managed to stay in one piece, then Gigant who landed with a loud thud. The large monster was taller than the walls of the pit, Kanar truly was puny compared to him. Both breeder opened their MonUnit and iniated Battle Protocole. 

"We won't go down easily!"Warned Metin.  


"I doubt we have the same definition of easy!" Retorked Anzo.  


Metin didn't like fighting Golems, they had low speed but their defense was too strong to make any dent in them without a very high level monster, and if they ever got lucky enough to lay a hit, they could knock out a monster in one shot! He didn't like those odds but he believed he could win.  


"Ready?" Started Francesca, readying her flag before she recieved nods from the two breeder "BATTLE!" She shouted, bringing the flag down.  


"Don't get to close Kanar, he can only fight on close range! If you keep running away he won't be able to hit you. Use your missile to damage him AND make sure he can't attack!" Instructed Metin.  


" Yeah yeah... same old same old... I need new moves." Complained the ducken.  


Metin didn't have much time to reply because Gigant had taken the offensive and with surprising speed considering his SPD rating he was in close range and unleashed a punch attack! The larger monster could take much larger steps than the little ducken, offsetting their speed diferences. Kanar dodged only by a few second as the massive yellow fist landed on the ground, smashing a hole in it. Kanar ran away backward and when he got in range he unleashed his missile as the Titan turned around. Gigant dashed forward and was hit by the attack straight in the face but kept running, leaving the smoke cloud behind and just going straight toward the Kokkung who was just recovering from being thrown into pieces. Thanks to his special training, Kanar had developped his ability to put himself back in one piece much faster and it is probably what saved him from Gigant's smashing punch once more! Metin took a look at his MonUnit, the missile had only done 1 point of damage to Gigant, one punch attack and even if Kanar was still standing it would be all over for them! 

"Run all you want little duck! But this arena is too small for you to go far enough! Gigant CRUSH HIM!" Shouted Anzo.  


"This is not good..." muttered Metin.  


**To Be Continued...**  


AN: Hello friendly readers! I decided to let you help me: I need filling breeders for tournaments! So submit a character name, gender, hair color, eye color, monster (with name, specie, breed, constitution. Please no SP monster or breed that needs a special accomplishement to obtain), a MonUnit color (no metalic ) and a Ranch name! Please try not to use names from other series to keep the originality of this fic. I can come up with some myself but I'll gladly accept your proposal. I'll try to keep this fic updated and warn you if I take another break! Thank you for your time! 


	8. The Youth Cup, Part 2

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: Yes I'm back again! What I meant by constitution was basically how your monster is made, for exemple a Kokkung is a Ducken+Durahan. Also, try to go for more original Mon-Unit color, it seams all I got so far are variants of blue! To think I already had a character planned with that color ^^; (I'll change mine so don't worry). Also I'm changing my screenname soon, so don't be surprised! 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 8: The Youth Cup part 2_  


Kanar was looking up at his massive rocky opponent before him. The one eyed Golem charged and almost crushed the little Kokkung with it's fist. Kanar avoided at the last second, running away on the other side of the field, only to be chased around by the golem. 

"Keep running away! I'll think up something..." Commented Metin, seeing the clock ticking down. 

"That's your bright idea?!? " Complained Kanar "I'll get tired out before he do!"   


"Just consider it training!" Replied the boy.  


"_Okay... if this was the game I'd have better chance to avoid his hit and I could just missile him into a lower percentage... but here he can move much faster AND he seams to always have a good chance to hitting Kanar... Think Metin, think creative... there's got to be a way to damage this rock..._"Tought the breeder, looking at the scene.  


"I GOT IT!" He called in his Mon-Unit "Kanar! Fire a missile at his head now!"   


Kanar wiphed around, skidding to a halt and opening his beak to fire straight at the giant's lone eye. Thanks to his training Kanar could easily hold himself in one piece when using his missiles now and he didn't felt in pieces on the ground. The charging golem brought his arm up to block the attack, causing smoke to errupt around his head. But even then the massive yellow mountain kept charging for his opponent.  


"Now fire at the ground and get out of the way!" Ordered Metin.  


In a split second, Kanara understood what his breeder wanted and did as instructed. The impact on the dirt created a small cratter and soon the giant stepped in it, destabilizing his charge. Now unable to stop he kept going forward, trying hard not to fall.  


"You know what they say, the harder they are..." Started Kanar, jumping out of the way.  


"...The harder they smash in the wall!" Finished Metin as the monster did just that, hitting the wall of the pit head first! 

There was still a few seconds on the timer and it seamed the Titan suffered lots of damage from the wall, but it was not the time to be surprised "Just to be safe, fire some more missile Kanar! Use all your energy!"   


"With pleasure!" Declared the Ducken before unleashing a barrage of missiles that engulfed it's target in a smoke and dust cloud.  


The dust finally started to settle as the match ended and the victor was quite evident. Metin and Kanar flashed a victory sign at the audiance, grinning happily. there was a round of applause and cheering for the newcomers as they retreated to the participant's room. 

"Yay! HURRAY FOR METIN AND KANAR!" Cheered Mai from above her seat.  


"Calm down Mai, they still have to face Aroma." Pointed out Holly.  


Mai flotted down to sit back, nodding "You're right Holly."  


The Lip Pink seamed uncharacteristically serious for a while before she turned to her breeder with a large smile "I bet it's gonna be a great match." She said, before giggling out of exitement.  


Holly chuckled at her Monster's exitement "Yeah... and it's gonna be a real challenge too, Aroma got far more experience than Metin." 

"_Good luck... you're gonna need it..._" She tought.  


----------  


"I heard the rumble... are you guys okay?" Asked Aroma as Metin and Kanar entered the preparation room.  


"Off course we are!" Replied Kanar with a big grin.  


"Yeah... beside if we weren't okay we wouldn't be back here right?"Added Metin.  


"You're right... then it means... Suzi's gonna get a second chance to beat up Kanar." Proudly declared Aroma, before bursting in laughter like someone who had already won, causing her shy Suzurin to try to calm her down.  


The Kokkung growled slightly."Don't bet on it! Your strategy won't work a second time!" He warned.  


Aroma stopped laughing but she still had a mischievous smile "I guess you're right, but I got more than one trick in my bag. " 

"Well then... may the best team win!" Finally said Metin, extending his hand.  


The two young breeder shook on it. Both knew it would be a great match. They were soon interupted by the official. The field had been cleared of all... obstacles... and it was time for the final match.  


"_This time... we'll be the winners._" Tought Metin, full of assurance.  


---------  


The small crowd was going wild as the two contestant for the final match faced each other. For an E-class tournament it had seen two great rookie monster, one with a rookie breeder and one with an experienced one. A lot of people were glad tyhey had paid the few Gs to see this tournament, it was great for the prize. Holly could hear people behind her placing bets on who would win, most went for Aroma's Suzi since they had more experienced than Metin and Kanar combined. Sometime it was odd how Metin seamed to know a lot about monsters and yet so little about actual breeding, and she had never learned how the mysterious boy from the tablet knew about her.. and then there was all the other strange thing about him. 

She shook her head: this was not the time to think of that. The two breeder were glaring at each other, their Mon-Units open. Metin and Aroma iniated battle protocol and the screen turn to pre-battle and Metin noticed Suzi's stats had slightly risen since the last time he had seen her, but not as dramatically as Kanar. The two monsters were now on totally equal term, but Metin had total faith in his Kokkung. Finally, the signal to fight was given. 

"Allright Kanar this time we won't fight foolishely! We can't let her save her energy with her turtling strategy... We have to keep her guts low so use your Missiles!!" Ordered Metin.  


Kanar fired a missile toward the Suzurin but the little monster bounced off to the side and charged to middle range where she suddenly shot her little ball like hand forward. Kanar barely avoided the Aim Hit attack before running off away , trying to return to 'far' distance where he unleashed another missile. This time Suzi kept going forwar and cross her arms. The missile hit and lifted a cloud of smoke and dust. Suddenly Suzi leapt out of the cloud, she had only taken one damage and barely lost any guts point. She let loose another Aim Hit as she kept bouncing forward.  


"She'S not using the same strategy, she's more agressive this time! Be careful!"   


"I don't need to! I got a strong defense too!" Replied Kanar, getting in the same ind of position Suzi had taken a few seconds before and bracing himself.  


The Aim Hit attack rebounded off his crossed wing and return to Suzi, doing only minimal damage. Aroma smirked, the Aim Hit was only a diversion as Suzi, in a final leap, smashed her fist into Kanar in a sudden pokorin attack. She had use the distraction to get in close range, but Kanar was a Kokkung, a Ducken as tough as a Durahan and he didn't fell to pieces like Suzi had expected, altough she had managed to corner him against the wall.  


"Kanar! Wing slap! Then jump to get out of there!" Ordered Metin quickly.  


The ducken's eye seamed to sparkle for a second before he unleashed his Wing Slap. Suzi did her best to block the blows that came toward her in fast scuession but she received one across the face that stunned her long enough for Kanar to leap up, landing right on the Suzurin's hat before he jumped off her, spinning in the air to land facing her. He started backing away but suddenly Suzi turned around. She had a little red mark on her cheek where Kanar had hit her, tears at the edge of her cute eyes and she looked PISSED!   


"You hit my FACE!! MEANY!" She called out loudly, unleashing a more powerful looking Aim Hit.  


Kanar squeaked when he saw Suzi's fist fly toward him at blinding speed. The attack hit him in the chest and sent him and all his pieces flying backward. The attack registered as a Critcal Hit on Metin's Mon Unit. The flying weapon flew back to Suzi who wasp anting, she had spend double the normal guts points in that attack and she felt it. Kanar quickly reassambled himself, and now that he was in the far distance he could attack.  


"She's weakened! Kanar! Missile Barrage!" Ordered the boy with a dramatic tone to his voice.  


In rapid sucession Kanar let loose four missiles, using as much energy as he could. Suzi realised the projectile were coming and she dodged the first one before bouncing above the second, but the third one found it's target and hit her dead on, making her an easy prey for the fourth impact that sent her rolling on the ground. She managed to get up, panting, just like Kanar who had used all his remaining guts on the barrage. They stood there, unable to do anything, and their Breeder knew it. Suddenly the timer ran out out, startling the two breeder who had completly forgetten about the time limit. Before even knowing the victor the crowd went wild, it had been a very exciting match, and it was only the begining of the two monster's career! That day Kanar and Suzi had acquired a few fans in the audiance.Metin looked at his Mon-Unit.  


"Judge... Kanar: 78,5%... Suzi: 78.5%... tie... " He read slowly, the result not really registering in his mind for a few seconds.  


"TIE?!?" Aroma, Francesca and Metin shouted at the same time.  


"That...that...that's impossible..." Commented the young girl.  


"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!" Suddenly called Francesca, grabbing everyone's attention. "THE RESULTS OF THE YOUTH CUP'S ASTOUNDING'S FINAL MATCH ARE IN! THIS EXEPTIONNAL E-CLASS BATTLE GAVE US AN EQUALLY EXEPTIONNAL RESULT... IT'S A TIE! "At her word the crowd once again exploded in applause and cheers, making the small stadium sound five time more populated. "AS THE RULES DICTATE BOTH FINALISTS WILL GO HOME WITH A TROPHY AND AN EQUAL PART OF THE PRIZE MONEY! LET'S ALL CONGRATULATE METIN AND AROMA AS WELL AS THEIR MONSTERS KANAR AND SUZI!" She announced.  


The two young breeder and their begining monsters looked at each other with prideful smile. A quick ceremony and a trip to the infirmary later the two pair met up with Holly and Mei at the exit of the stadium.  


"That was fantastic! I've never seen an E-Class battle as exciting as that! You two are great!" Congratulated Holly "You did very well Metin."  


"YAY!" Cheered Mei, spinning in the air.  


"Altough I'm a bit sadden we didn't win, I'm glad we didn't lose." The boy replied with a chuckle, holding out his small trophy "This will look great on the mantle. I can assure you Holly this will be the first one in a long list! "   


"Don't get too cocky, you still haven't really beat me." Teased Aroma, poking Metin's nose, making him blush slightly. "I'll be participating in the Official E at the end of the month... I hope I'll see you there and we'll have a clear winner." She added.  


Metin grinned happily. "You bet I'll be there too!" 

"I'll train hard and next time we meet I'll defeat you." Declared Kanar, looking at Suzi.  


"Well you better not hit me in the face again." She replied, looking away. "Or you'll be sorry."  


"It's a date then!" Said Aroma with a wink "Allright guys... Zest is gonna get worried if I don't get back home for dinner... I'll see you four later! Com'on Suzi!" she added before taking off.  


She had only taken a few steps that she stopped and turned around before throwing a little pouch to Metin who caught it with excellent reflexe.  


"It's my share of prize money... you'll need it more than I do!" She explained, running off.  


"THANK YOU AROMA!" Shouted Metin.  


Holly cracked a smile at Metin's surprised look "Allright champ, let's go dinner too. "   


"Don't forget you promised us some Dodorin Cake!" Pointed out Kanar.  


**To Be Continued...**  



	9. A Day In Town

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_  


AN: You guys had a good Holyday season? Mine was great, but now I'm ready to go back to a more steady pace of writting. While this story is inspired by Monster Rancher Advance 2 I don't want to make an exact copy of the events in the game. Beside I don't even remember half of them :p. You'll see in this chapter the begining of more original thing to comes. Anybody remember the name of that FIMBA man who drags you and Holly in ruins expedition in MRA2? I forgot ^^;;. Well, on to the story now! 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 9: A Day in Town_  


It was once again a beautiful day in the valley where the Hopestar Ranch was located. It was already past ten in the morning and yet nobody was outside training. Today was a day of rest after the tiring events of the Youth Cup the day before and so the little gang was not home but actually in town, enjoying a day at the market. 

Metin was fascinated by the scene. There were shops lining the large city place and many little stands at it center, organised around a large statue of a man almost overshadowed by the large bird behind him. The creatured seamed to wrap the man with it's long tail. The statue was a bright red color and was shimering in the morning sun.   


"Hey Holly... what's that statue?" He asked, not looking at the girl beside him.  


"That's a statue of Magna and his Phoenix, he was one of the greatest Breeder of all time and he was from Age Island." She explained, as Metin locked eyed with the lifeless statue.  


"It's an impressive statue... a Phoenix...wow." He said softly.  


Kanar was as transfixed by the sight as his breeder"One day we'll have a statue of our own!"   


Mei giggled "But you'Re not a Phoenix Kanar." She said, poking the Kokkung's head.  


"It doesn't matter!" Both Kanar and Metin answered at the same time, startling the Lip Pink who floated a few feet back after the outburst. 

"Hmm... anyway... I'm gonna go gather some supplies with Mei, you boys run along and try not to get conned into buying something useless." Warned Holly, handing Metin some coins "But you can buy yourself a treat. I think you deserve it after the performance of yesterday. See you guys in two hours, we'll meet here before going for lunch!" She said, leaving Metin and Kanar.  


The two looked at each other, then at the coins in the boy's hand and came to the same conclusion. 

"More Dodorin Cake!" They said with a smile.  


The Market was a busy place with lots of humans, but also a few monsters. The most commons were Suezos and Hares, but also some Tigers, Momos and Suzurins. Most of the larger monsters didn't come to the Market unless they were carrying merchandise for the merchants. Metin and Kanar even had to get out of the way of a green colored Golem as it carried a large crate down the aisle betweem stands.  


Lots of things were on display, from fruits and vegetables to fish and live animals and even various handcrafted items. Many aromas were titilating Kanar and Metin's nostrils, some good, other bad. They were getting hungry and they had yet to find where to buy Dodorin Cake. They decided to settle for the next item of food they could find, it just happened to be potatoes cooked over an opened fire on sticks. Metin paid the Momo manning the little stand and he and Kanar kept going, eating their potatoes.  


"That's odd..." Commented a Suzurin bouncing beside the Momo. "That boy... he's eating a Ghiro Potato... I tought humans couldn't stand the taste of those." She said, looking at her furry friend.  


"He paid for it. Not my problem if he ends up sick." 

"That hit the spot... not as good as Dodorin Cake but those things are pretty good for potatoes." Commented Metin, throwing away the stick in a waste basket.  


"Yeah... we could ask Holly to cook some for us sometimes." Replied Kanar, doing the same. "We should head back to the statue, we better not keep the girls waiting." He proposed.  


"You're right... The 'taters were cheap, we'll probably still have enough for a dessert after lunch." Replied Metin, looking at his monster as he turned a corner.  


Since he wasn't looking where he was going Metin collided with someone and felt to the ground with a 'ow'. He looked up at the person he had hit and who was still standing as if he hadn't been hit by someone.  


"Look where your going." Replied Chiroh venomously.  


Metin sprung back to his feet in an instant and glared at his neigbhor. "What are you doing here Heruno?" He asked.  


"I have the right to come to the market, it is a public place. What I came here for is none of your buisness but if you must know I'm buying food for the week." Replied the boy, not the least intimidated by Metin's firey glare.  


Kanar was glaring at Darkalon who didn't seam to bother either, in fact, the Phantom simply yawned.  


"I heard you participated in the Youth Cup yesterday but you didn't win." Added the other boy, locking his black eyes with the green pair glaring at him.  


Metin took a second to realize that news travel fast before replying "We finished with a tie against Aroma and her Suzurin!" Complained Metin.  


"It doesn't matter if you lose by 1% of by 99%, all that matter is winning, and a tie is not a victory." Coldly stated Chiroh, enraging his neigbhor to the point where his hat would fly off his head.  


Before Metin could say, or do, anything foolish, there was a loud crashing noise followed by screams and even more crashing noises. People and monsters suddenly ran past the two pair from the direction of the noise!  


"What's going on?" Asked Darkalon out loud as he and Chiroh turned toward the origin of the noise.  


"RUN! IT'S A MAD STRAY!!" Shrieked a Suezo, bouncing cowardly away from the scene. 

"Let's go Darkalon!" Called Chiroh, taking off in the opposing direction of the fleeing crowd.  


Metin only took a second to decide "Let's go too Kanar!"  


"Yeah!" 

And the two took off after their rivals, not sure of what was awaiting them up ahead. It seamed this beautiful day was not calm anymore. As they aproached the scene they could see smoke already rising up ahead. Quickly Metin and Kanar had catched on with Darkalon and Chiroh who seamed surprised to seam them there.  


"What do you think your doing?" Asked the Victory Blade breeder.  


"Helping." Simply answered Metin.  


They were reaching the area of trouble when suddenly a bunch of pieces of wood were hurled in their direction as a stand was pulverised. Metin quickly pushed Chiroh out of the way while the two monsters followed them.  


"I could have avoided that easily, don't expect any gratitude." Said the black haired boy, pushing Metin off of him. 

There was a sudden roar and they finally saw who was causing the destruction. It was a green colored Naga monster. 

"I know that, it's a Stinger, a Naga combined with a Zuum!" Commented Metin as the two returned to their feet.  


The Stinger was surrounded by devastated stand, pieces of food and scurrying rabbits a chicken. It looked mad, completly mad. And to make matter worse, one of the stand that was serving food had caugh on fire after before demolished and it threatened to spread to the nearby building! Metin spotted through a window a woman and a child hiding in the building behind the flaming stand.  


"Chiroh! Look! We have to beat that thing before the house catches on fire!" Declared Metin.  


Chiroh took a glance were Metin was pointing "Fine... I'll take care of the Stinger and you go save those two. Darkalon doesn't need anybody's help to handle this."   


"What?!?" Asked Kanar, ready to lay the smack down on the boy until he had admitted he was wrong, but Metin stopped him. The boy was looking at his Mon Unit and looked grim.  


"Chiroh... look at this thing's stats, they're twice those of Darkalon, even with your UpCritic I doubt you'll have much chance. I know Kanar is tired from yesterday's Tournament but he can still fight. Once we got those two person to safety Kanar will go help Darkalon, wether you like it or not." Metin said calmly, as the Stinger destroyed one more stand.  


Chiroh was taken aback. Metin had never shown this kind of serious behevior before, at least no as far as Chiroh knew. As much as the Victory Blade breeder hated to admit, he had a point, Darkalon was not yet strong enough to face that Stinger, but accepting help from such a stupid newbie?  


"Fine... but don't feel forced to be hasty. Take them to safety first." Simply said Chiroh before he and Darkalon ran toward the Stinger.  


"Stop it right there!" Called out the Phantom, "You better stop that rampaging or I'm gonna have to used force!" He challenged.  


The Stinger stopped his destruction of a large wooden sculpture on display to look at Darkalon. The Naga monster was about the size of an adult human and Darkalon was about half his size!  


"No puny slave is a match for me, the great Green Blade!" Boasted the Stinger, now known as Green Blade "It is YOU who should leave before I crush you like the puny bug you are!" He roared.  


"Let's go while he's distracted!" Instructed Metin to Kanar as the two dashed toward the house just as the flames were starting to lick it's outer walls. 

Suddenly Green Blade lunged at Darkalon with his mighty clawed hand. Chiroh called his order in his shiny black Mon-Unit and the Phantom easily dodged to the side before he basically rebounded on the ground and charged with a flaming fist, hoping to catch Green Blade off guard as he was attacking from the same side as his opponent's outstretched hand. The Stinger barely gave Darkalon a glanced before he quickly bent his arm and elbowed him in the stomach. The little antlant was thrown a feets by the force of the attack.  


"Darkalon!" Gasped Chiroh. 

He knew Green Blade's stats were higher than Darkalon but he had fought stronger strays before, but never were they THAT strong! Could it be that that stray had actually been trained by a human? The Stinger suddenly noticed Metin and Kanar running toward the other side of the make shift battlefield.  


"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" he said, slithering toward them as he unleashed a cloud of purple gas from his mouth.  


Metin and Kanar were caught in the Poison Gas attack before they could do a think and Metin quickly lost sight of what was around him as he started to cough loudly. The purple gas was stinging his eyes and throat. He suddenly saw a form coming straight at him and in an instant he realised it was Green Blade's clawed hand. He was suddenly hit but not from the front, from the side, and tackled out of the path of the attack, AND out of the poisonous cloud. Through his teary eyes he could see Kanar standing before him, protecting him.   


"You really tought a little poison could harm a metalic Monster?" Asked Kanar, teasingly. 

Darkalon was back to his feet and rushed toward Green Blade from behind, ready this time to attack him with everything he had.  


"Forget them **I **am your opponent!" He declared.  


Green Blade barely looked back and flicked his tail, smashing it into the Antlan and sending him to the ground again. That's when two missile hit him straight in the face! He had let that attack distract him long enough for the Ducken to attack. Kanar charged, hoping to catch the Stinger off guard and smack him with his Wing Slap attack. Green Blade swiped at him with his hand, forcing Kanar to back away to avoid the attack, but the Naga wasn't finished and swiped again with his other hand, barely missing, and then he quickly whipped around, taking Kanar by surprise and sending him flying into a stand with a vicious tail slap.   


Green Blade locked his glare on Metin, still in a coughing fit on the ground. The boy tried to crawl away as the taller monster slithered toward him. Chiroh watched in horror as Green Blade lift a clawed hand.  


"And now for you..." Growled the Stinger.  


**To Be Continued...**  


AN: Aren't I evil? Hehehehehe. 


	10. Evildoers, Beware!

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_

AN: Sorry for the delay! 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 10: Evildoers Beware!_  


"And now for you..." Growled Green Blade.

Metin was still coughing as he tried to get far away from the rampaging Stinger. He found himself cornered against a pile of wood debris. He looked at the fire on the other side of the battlefield, it was getting awefully closed to that building and here he was, about to be made into mince-meat by crazy Naga. What a way to end a breeder's career. Everything seamed to happened in slow motion: the cruel smirk on Green Blade's reptilian face, the descent of the clawed end, the cries of Kanar, Darkalon and even Chiroh. Metin shut his eyes and prepared himself for the horrendous pain.

The pain never came, only the sound of an impact, a cry of pain from the Stinger and the feeling of heat nearby. Finally the boy opened his eyes to see that Green Blade had backed away, burnt mark on his face, and there was someone standing in front of him, another monster.

"Do not fear citizen! I will protect you from this malevolant menace!" Said the almost completly white Antlan, his Fire Punch attack dieing down as he spoke.

It was an Antlan allright, all white with golden horns and firey orange eyes. The young breeder knew that specie, he had even trained one in the first Monster Rancher Advance, it was a Moon Light, a special Antlan. The other three seamed as surprised as Metin, especially considering there was no breeder around and nobody had seen him arrive.

"HELP! THE FIRE!" Called the woman in the building.

Green Blade seamed enraged, growling menacingly and glaring at the white Antlan. "YOU!... YOU!!! I'M GONNA CRUSH YOU LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE!" Roared Green Blade, swiping madly at the Moon Light.

The white monster reacted swiftly and leaped above the clawed hand. While in the air he opened his arm wide as his body started glowing. A volley of meteor struck the Stinger and his surrounding, forcing him to back away.

"Hurry! Go save the maiden and her innocent child!" Called the Moon Light as he landed and looked back at Metin, who had finally stopped coughing, before he jumped to the side to avoid a cloud of poisonous gas. 

The boy was confused for a second before nodding "Right! Kanar!" The two then took off across the battlefield.

"Get back here!" Growled Green Blade turning toward the human.

"I am your opponent you villainous fiend!" Declared the Moon Light with his heroic voice, unleashing a vicious punch rush on the Stinger's lower torso.

Green Blade took many hits before he managed to swat the white Antlan with a slap of his large hand, tossing the heroic monster like a rag doll. The mad monster didn't wait until his opponent recovered and littery threw himself at him, launging through the air claws first and his fangs bare. Half way through his flight he was hit by a dark mass, another fire punch leaving it's mark on his green scales as he was sent flying to the ground and rolling into a pile of debris he had made.

"Forgot about me" Asked Darkalon, swiftly landing.

"Not bad at all, Junior." Said the mysterious Antlan as he was getting up.

"You're not bad yourself, Old Timer." 

Metin and Kanar broke through the door of the house and led the woman and her child toward a side street for a safe retreat, the Kokkung keeping his eyes on the battle while walking forward. Metin took time to notice his monster wasn't simply backing away, he had turned his head part backward. Duckens were truly BIZARRE creatures, even by Monster Rancher standards.

Darkalon charged with a fire punch, but the Stinger tried to stab him. The heroic Phantom dodged the attack but his own couldn't connect, barely grazing the Naga's side. The unknown Moon Light tried to attack as well, but Green Blade's tail shot forward and barely missed it's target, breaking the flat rocks used as pavement. In a quick turnaround, the Stinger struck Darkalon with his tail, sending him crashing into one of the few stands he hadn't demolished. 

"DARKALON!" Called out Chiroh, rushing to his monster's side.

That's when Metin and Kanar rushed back to the scene, having escorted the woman and her child out of the area, the Kokkung was eager to return to battle. He let loose a series of missiles, but Green Blade swat them away with his powerful clawed hands like they were nothing, sending them harmlessly hit the ground. The Naga had the Moon Light on one side and the foolish Kokkung on the other. He turned to the mysterious Antlan and fired a poisounous gas cloud before turning towards Kanar and charging. Metin was terrified as the Naga leapt in the air, claws ready to crush his Monster. Kanar tried to leap backward but Green Blade had anticipated and suddenly his tail lashed like a whip and stabbed Kanar's middle section, sending it flying into Metin, before he swat the rest of the modular Monster, sending both Breeder and Monster into a pile of wood. 

"Does your evil knows no end you Dark Claw scum" Questionned the white Antlan as the cloud of poison gas was dissipated from within by what seamed like a whirlwind. 

The Moon Light appeared, the blades that all Antlans posess in there forearms were fully extended, reflecting the sunlight brightly on their golden surfaces.

"Many times in the past have I tried to bring you back to the right side, without success. And now, I've had enough, you shall face my judgement at the tip of my own blades, Green Blade!" He boldly declared, pointing his opponent with his golden weapon. 

"Try if you can! I'm not affraid of you!" Growled Green Blade.

Chiroh had managed to dig out Darkalon who weakly opened his eyes.

"Darkalon, how do you feel" Asked the boy, concern appearing on his usually emotionless eyes.

"Fine... nothing...broken... where's... the Old Timer" Asked the Phantom.

"I think the battle's about to end." Commented Chiroh. 

Meanwhile Metin, groaning in pain, was coming out of the debris and brought Kanar's pieces together. The poor Kokkung had a large dent on his mid section, right were Green Blade's sharp tail had stabbed. Luckily, his TufArmor and the face that his body could break apart had absorbed most of the energy of the impact, but it still did some damage.

"Kanar! Kanar! Wake up!" Pleaded the boy.

"Not now...five more... minutes." Complained the Ducken.

"This is not the time!" Replied the breeder, looking at the Antlan and Naga, ready to finish the battle.

"WHIRLWIND!" Called the white Monster, spinning madly and sending spinning gusts of wind toward his opponent.

Green Blade shielded his face with his hand and tried to hold his ground as he was pushed a few inches away by the wind attack. Suddenly the Antlan stopped spinning and leaped in the air, crossing his arm over his chest. As he was up in the air his blades suddenly erupted with electricity.

"LIGHTENING!" Shouted the Moon Light, uncrossing his arms and sending the collected eletricity hitting the Naga who was pushed a few more inches away by the blunt of the attack.

"AAAAAAAAAH! NO! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Roared Green Blade as electricity coursed his body as his white foe landed in front of him.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" He screeched before a blinding explosion occured. 

"Justice will always triumph." Stated the Moon Light, standing up and retracting his blades as the smoke cleared out.

The two monster and two breeder gasped when they realised that all that was left of Green Blade was a tablet laying on the ravaged ground. Metin noticed the tablet was cracked all over.

"I wish he could have seen the errors of his ways before I had to resort to this. Now, he will not be able to harm anyone... Ever again. Go and get yourself healed citizens, you were of great help in this battle, now I must bid you farewell and continue my crusade against the dark forces!" Declared the mysterious Monster, before he threw a smoke bomb and dissapeared.

Metin was the first to speak, asking what everybody was wondering "Who was that Moon Light" 

"He was...so...COOL!" Commented Darkalon, more to himself than his breeder.

"METIN! KANAR! ARE YOU ALLRIGHT" Suddenly called the familiar voice of Holly.

Holly, Mei and a group of people and Monster came running to the scene.

"What happened here" Asked a tall man that was dressed into what vaguely ressembled a police uniform.

"It's a long... ow...story." Simply said Metin as he got up from the ground.

--------

Later that day, after a trip to the hospital for a check up, and some explanation, the little gang had gone home. Chiroh and Darkalon had left without as much as a good bye, wich had angered Metin, but now he was eating a delicious dinner in his ranch and decided to forget about the gloom Breeder.

"You should have seen that Moon Light fight, it was so cool, at first he didn't seam much stronger than Darkalon was, but then he went all out on the guy and finished him off with style!" Said Kanar, jumping up and down on his chair, his pieces making loud noises has they slammed back in place with each bounce.

"But he killed that Stinger..." Commented Holly, with a tone of sadness in her voice.

"I know... I didn't like seeing that... I hope I never see it again." Added Metin, feeling a bit down again. "But that Antlan sure was something."

"Bah, that Stinger got what he deserved, he was looking for trouble and that's what he found." Declared Kanar, crossing him arm.

"How can you be so cold blooded" Asked Mei.

"I've got a heart of steel." Answered the Kokkung, shrugging.

"I'd like to find out that Antlan's name tough... ever heard of a Monster like him Holly" Asked the boy, turning to the older girl.

"Hey, I'm as new as you around here, but I do know that Antlan often have a strong sense of justice and honor, and that they are often seen hunting down criminals and wrongdoers even after retirement, it's known as the 'Antlan Vigilante Syndrome', and it sounds like this Moon Light got it big time. Maybe Aroma knows more about him. We shouldn't bother about that for now, don't forget you got an AGIMA Official tournament in as little as 12 days!" Explained Holly.

"Yikes! You're right! " Gasped the boy, checking the calandar of his Mon Unit."Tomorow will take it slow with some basic INT training." He proposed.

"But then we go back to YOUR special training...right"Inquired Kanar, a mischiefous glint in his eyes.

Metin sweatdropped, not liking the fact that his Monster liked to attack him, even tough it was their best bet to become stronger. "Su...sure." He finally answered.

**To Be Continued...**

AN: I had a sudden rush of inspiration for this chapter and I finished the last half of it in a few hours! I hope you like it, and once again I'm sorry for the delay. 


	11. AGIMA Official E, part 1

_Disclaimer: Monster Rancher, Monster Rancher Advance and related copyrights are properties of Tecmo and I do not work for them. In other words I do not own Monster Rancher or any related concept, this work of fiction is done purely for fun and not money. Don't sue me I'm poor!_

AN: I feel like I haven't worked on this in AGES! Sorry about that. I'm still looking for a few filler opponents to fill my tournaments, but please, no more blue Mon Unit, I got enough of them already ^^;. IF you could include a few attacks it would help me out. I'm using one submitted character(with slight adjustement to fit in the story) in this chapter ^^ I hope you still read Spellcaster Hikaru. In fact I hope ANYONE still reads @.@ 

**Monster Rancher Advance Adventures**  
_Episode 11: AGIMA Official E,part 1_  


It was the day following Green Blade's attack on the market. Metin was enjoying the sun on the porch of his ranch's house while Kanar was meditating on the ground, deep in toughts. Holly was sitting beside him, reading a book, while Mei was up on the roof, enjoying the bright sun as well.

"The weather's fine on this island." Commented the boy.

"I know...we barely had rain yet. You should take this opportunity to go in town and get register for the Official." Proposed Holly, nothing looking up from her book.

"We can't do it through the Mon Unit like the Youth Cup?" Wondered Metin. 

"You can do both, but I tought since you don't enjoy INT training you'd like something to do." Explained the girl.

The boy quickly stood up "Good idea! I'll go to the AGIMA Building then." 

"Not so fast!" Called Holly, stopping Metin in his track. "Take Mei with you, just in case you get lost or attacked by a stray." 

"Yippee! I'm going to the city!" Cheered the Lip Pink, flying down from the roof. "Com'on Metin, I'll race you up the hill!" And with that she flew away toward the city.

"HEY! NO FAIR! YOU CAN FLY!" She heard the boy call as he took off after the flying monster. 

Holly chuckled "At least I'll have some peace and quiet." 

---------

"You're just mad because I won." Stated Mei, floating a few inches above the ground as she and Metin walked through town. 

"I'm mad because you were flying and I had to run uphill!" Growled the boy. 

"Hey, it's not my fault you don't have wings." 

Metin tried to grab hold of Mei, only to have her fly upward. 

The pixie giggled "Silly human!" 

"Having fun instead of training Uchara?" Asked a female voice. 

Metin turned to face the voice and smiled as he saw Aroma standing there with Suzi and a young man Metin recognized as Zest. 

"Hey Aroma!" Greeted the boy, walking toward them. 

"Hi Aroma! Hi Suzi!" Chimed Mei as she flew down to their level.

"Hi!" Softly added Suzi. 

"Metin, this is my brother Zest! Zest, that's the breeder I told you about. " 

"Hi, nice to meet you." Said Metin, holding out his hand. 

Zest shook hand with the younger boy "Nice to meet you. I heard you were pretty good for a new guy." 

Metin grinned and rubbed the back of his head "Thanks! So what brings you all in town?"

"Well it's Suzi's day off, and I want to get registered for the AGIMA Official E. What about you? Where are Holly and Kanar?" Replied Aroma.

"Well Kanar's doing some basic INT training and Holly is watching him. Since we were bored Mei and I are going to get me registered for the tournament too!" Explained the boy.

"Well I hope this time we won't end up tie! I want that title and that trophy, just for me." The girl added, with a little smile. "Com'on, let's walk together to the AGIMA building." She then said, pulling on Metin's hand and taking him in the right direction.

After managing to get his hand free from Aroma's grip, the boy decided to ask her about his strange encounter with the vigilante Antlan "Hey Aroma... you heard of a rogue Moonlight fighting strays that attack people? " 

"I've heard of Antlans doing that sort of thing after they retire, but the rumors never say what specie the Antlan is, so it's possible yeah. Why?" She answered.

"Chiroh and I faced a stray Stinger that attacked the market, and this Moonlight came out of nowhere and... killed him." 

"Oh yeah... I heard of that...so you guys were those 'brave youth' people told me about." Commented Zest. 

"That was pretty brave of you to face a wild monster like that. " Said Aroma, making Metin blush, much to Mei's delight "But then again I would have done the same thing... oh! Here we are! Let's get registered." 

----------

Metin entered the preparation room of the Official E tournament and looked around. There were 5 other breeders there for the round robin style tournament. There was off course Aroma and Suzi. Beside them there was a girl with a red colored tiger, a younger boy with a Mew, a young man with a turquoise Zuum and an older girl with a blue Lesione. Metin let a little sigh, relieved there was no Golem this time around. He hated to face Golems in the game and after Kanar fought with Gigant, he truly hated to face them in real life too! He went over to Aroma, who was waving at him.

"So Metin, ready for your first official?" She asked.

"Sure am!" He answered "Altough I expected it to be held in another stadium...this is the same place we fought in for the Youth Cup." 

"Well it is the E Class Colloseum, there's nothing to do about it. The D Class one is in the next town and it's pretty nice. You'll see. " Replied the girl, as she eyed Metin.

The boy had bandages around his head again, a big cross of bandage on his right cheek, arround his left arm, and a patch on his pant's leg. He looked as bad as during the last tournament! 

"Geez Metin, what's up with you? You're always all banged up by the time of the tournament!" Commented Aroma, a hint of concern in her normally upbeat and cheery voice.

Both Kanar and Metin laughed nervously "Well.. it's a secret. Don't worry, I heal fast. I'll be okay in a few days." He reassured her. "So! Who should I look out for?" He then asked, shifting the subject away from his secret training methods.

"The girl over there with the Flarester." Answered the other Breeder, pointing to the girl with the red colored tiger. 

The girl had short dark blue hair that spiked at the bottom and deep black eyes. She wore long loose blue robes with a black cape, giving the look of some story book magician. Her MonUnit was midnight blue and she wore around her neck a silver chain adorn with a round red pendant. Her monster was dark orange with a red mane, making him look like a horned fireball, it's eyes seamed to burn with fire and it's black horn were slightly curved upward. Metin knew that a Flarester was the result of a combination betweem a Tiger and a Dragon monster, and even without looking with his Mon-Unit he could tell that Flarester was powerful. 

"That's Hikaru Spellia of the Red Moon Ranch. Before our battle in the Youth Cup Tournament, everybody said she would be the one advencing to D Class. Altough since our spectacular final, nobody is sure of anything. Just be careful, I heard her monster, Flameborg, is VERY powerful for an E Class." Explained Aroma.

That's when the official with glasses that Metin had seen at the Youth Cup showed up. 

"Allright listen up, here are the match ups for the first series of battles!" He called, getting everyone's attention. "First up is Red Moon and... Spring Blossom! Followed by Echo Canyon versus Sunny Meadow and finally Seaside Hill and Hopestar!" 

The girl with the Lesione looked at Metin with a smile, while Aroma looked excited to face off against Hikaru. Suzi hid behind her breeder's leg as the Flarester glared her way. Metin's opponent was older than him, probably as old as Holly, she had an aquamarine green Mon-Unit, and wore a blue dress, Both her hair and eyes were brown. 

Hikaru walked over Aroma with a little smirk "Well it's a pleasure to face you in battle Aroma, you're a celebrity. May the best team win." 

The two girls shook hand " May the best team win." Agreed Aroma.

The two girls then left for the arena, to fight, leaving Metin with the other competitors. The older girl introduced herself and her monster to Metin and Kanar. The blue Lesione was taller than the Ducken, in fact her head was perched as high as Metin's, and so she had to look down at the little Kokkung. She was named Mia and her monster was Pali, a Paleo, she then left him to talk to the other breeders. Sitting in a corner the boy decided to take a quick glance at his opposition. He opened his Mon-Unit and scanned Pali.

"She's older than Suzi, and yet she doesn't have very high stats, I guess the Seaside Hill Ranch is new. A Paleo is Lesione + Antlan. She already knows Spike though, you'll have to be careful. " He read, whispering to Kanar.

"Don't sweat kid, I can handle that overgrown fish! I'll dazzle her with my charm then go in for the kill!" Bragged Kanar.

"Oh boy... if he wins easily he's gonna brag about it for months." Groaned Metin.

---------

Holly was sitting with Mei and Zest, watching Aroma and Suzi's battle. Things weren't going well for the Spring Blossom team. None of Suzi's Aim Hit had managed to connect with the speedy Flameborg, and he had managed to damage her with his horn and claw! There was only 25 seconds left to the fight, and even without a special Mon Unit like Metin, Holly knew that her friend would loose. Right now the little Suzurin was doding claw attacks left and right, barely keeping up with the rapid pace of her attacker! Aroma was frantic, but Hikaru was calm and cool. That's when someone else sat beside the young assistant/breeder. She was surprised to find none other than her neigbhor, Chiroh Heruno!

"Chiroh! What are you doing here?" Asked the girl.

"Oh it's you... just my luck...I'm here to scope the competition. I might have to face the winner in the next D-Class tournament." He explained.

"Hi Mei!" Called Darkalon in a friendly manner, waving to the Lip Pink, before receiving a deadly glare from his breeder.

"HIYA Darkalon!" Greeted the cheerful pixie.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Metin's challenge, right?" Asked Holly.

The dark hair boy didn't even look at Holly when he answered her "Hah! This isn't the Youth Cup Holly, a rookie like him can't win in this tournament, not with Hikaru Spellia in the line up. I bet he'll loose to Aroma this time too. And even if he was to win, I doubt Kanar is any match for Darkalon." 

"That's not true, you saw them in action when you fought with Green Blade, and you'll see them again in this tournament, you'll see they come a long way since the time you almost killed that stray Psiroller in our backyard." Replied the girl. "You just think you're superior to everyone because you're from the Victory Blade Ranch!" 

Chiroh looked frustrated "Believe what you want Holly, but I want to watch this tournament and be ready for the competition when it come to me."

That's when Flameborg landed a powerful claw stab right at Suzi's hard chest, sending her flying into the wall behind her.

"Oh no Suzi!" Gasped Mei.

"And I am certain that she will be that competition." Added Chiroh, scanning the Flarester with his metalic black Mon-Unit. 

---------

Metin saw Aroma enter the room, carrying a dirty Suzurin, half asleep in her arm.

"Aroma! What happened?" Asked Metin, 

But he already knew the answer "We lost...75% to 99%. that Flarester is really fast and powerful. Be careful Metin, it's like facing an actual Dragon!" warned the girl.

"I take nappy now." Groaned Suzi, falling asleep in her breeder's arm.

"I'm going over to the recovery room... don't worry about Suzi, she'll be okay for the next round, you just worry about your own match." Explained Aroma, as she proceeded to leave the room.

Then Metin had to wait until the match betweem the guys of Sunny Meadow and Echo Canyon were done with their matches. The kid with the Mew was from Echo Canyon, while the guy with the Zuum was from the Sunny Meadow Ranch. The young breeder looked at the Flarester, the fire still burning in it's eyes as if it hadn't been tired out by his encounter with Suzi, who while small and fragile looking, was not easy to damage. He then took the opportunity to scan Flameborg with his platinium Mon-Unit. He wasn'tT pleased with what he saw, that thing had stats almost on par with Darkalon, and Darkalon had been in the D-Class longer than Kanar even trained. He also noticed a trait he had never seen before called 'DragnSoul', and wondered what it was. How could they beat that thing? They would never be able to face Chiroh and Darkalon, or at least not in D-Class. Metin closed his Mon-Unit just as the official entered, along with the two breeder who were competing. He heard the kid with a Mew won but he could careless. He less than he cared about his next match. He was half in his right mind to let Kanar do it by himself but in the end decided against it.

"The next match is Hopestar Ranch versus Seaside Hill Ranch!" Called the official.

The boy stood up and clenched his fist. His ranch was called 'Hopestar' and to be true to it's name, Metin couldn't loose hope that easily. Kanar seamed to understand as he and his breeder walked with confident steps, passing by the girl and her Flarester.

Once they were out of earshot, Metin looked at his Kokkung "We won't give up! If we want to battle with Chiroh and Darkalon we HAVE to win! This fight and this tournament!" 

Kanar nodded "I won't give up!" 

---------

"COM'ON YOU CAN DO IT GUYS!" Cheered Holly from her seat.

The fight betweem the team from Hopestar and Seaside Hill had begun about 30 seconds ago, and nobody had been hit yet. Pali wasn't a very accurate Monster and Kanar had no trouble avoiding any hits, but she was very slippery and managed to dodge all the missiles or get away from any wing slaps Kanar had tried. Pali opened her mouth and shot a ball of water in the air, slamming it with her head as it fell down. The Spike attack flew toward Kanar who barely dodged , throwing himself to the side, he then had to roll out of the way as the Paleo charged at him. 

He took his chance and fired a missile, hitting the Lesione straight in the face, before rushing her. Kanar leaped and unleashed a series of Wing slap before landing straight on one of her front fin, getting a cried of pain out of the blue monster. The Kokkung then retreated before she'd tried to throw him into a wall or something. Doing so allowed him to avoid a tail whip as Pali spun quickly where she stood. 

The rest of the battle went on like it's begining, none of the opponent capable of hitting the other.

"How come Kanar isn't hitting the other Monster anymore?" asked Mei to the two humans surrounding her.

Zest pushed up his glasses before answering "Metin simply wants to save Kanar's strength for the battles with Suzi and Flameborg. They dealt enough damage to win the fight now, so all they need to do is take it easy. It's not as fun to watch, but it's wiser."

"Oh... but I wanted a cool fight." Whined the Lip Pink.

"You'll have your cool fight later, you'll see." Promised Holly.

A few more dodges later and the fight was over, victory going to Metin and Kanar who left the arena waving at the crowd.

"Don't get your hope too high, I'm pretty sure the fight against Hikaru and Flameborg will be a quick one. I just hope for your pal's sake his monster doesn't suffer much." Commented Chiroh.

"What makes you so sure they'll lose to the Red Moon team?" Asked Holly.

Chiroh lifted his left arm"You know what this special Mon-Unit is capable of, right?" the girl nodded "I scanned Flameborg during the fight... Hikaru already unlocked his DragnSoul trait."

Holly looked shocked "ALREADY? That's impossible! He's only in E-Class! Oh no... Metin...Kanar... this is terrible... those two are so stubborn she might dare to use 'it' on Kanar!" 

Holly looked with deep concern in her eyes at the door through wich her friend had retreated after his battle, then at the board where the fights line up where announced. 

"_This might proove to be Metin and Kanar's toughtest battle yet... good luck guys...I'm praying for you._" tought the girl. 

**To Be Continued...**

AN: Dum dum dum! Suspense! Mystery! What is this new trait I just made up? You'll see, you'll see ^^. 


End file.
